I 


^ 


u 


A  MODERN  HISTORY 


OF 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


CONNECTICUT 


EDITOK-IN-CHIEF 

BENJAMIN  TINKHAM  MAKSHALL,  A.M.,  D.D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  CONNECTICUT  COLLEGE,  NEW  LONDON 


VOLUME  I 

1922 
LEWIS  HISTOKICAL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 

NEW  YOKK  CITY 


COPYRIGHT 

LBWIS  HISrrORaCAL   PUBLHSHINO   COMPANY 

1922 


FOREWOKD 

The  early  history  of  New  London  County  has  been  well  covered  by 
Miss  Caulkins'  histories  of  Norwich,  and  of  New  London,  in  various  local 
addresses  on  special  occasions,  and  in  more  formal  articles  prepared  for  the 
20Oth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Norwich.  Notable  amongst  these  was 
the  historical  address  of  Daniel  Coit  Oilman,  delivered  at  Norwich  on  Sep- 
tember 7,  1859.  To  enumerate  the  special  papers  delivered  at  the  meetings 
of  the  New  London  County  Historical  Society,  at  the  dedication  of  monu- 
ments and  public  buildings  of  the  county,  on  patriotic  occasions,  on  the  250th 
anniversary  of  the  town  of  Norwich  (1909),  and  in  almost  countless  addresses 
on  special  topics  given  before  interested  audiences  in  churches  and  halls, 
not  to  mention  the  many  excellent  contributions  of  the  press,  would  in  itself 
be  an  arduous  task,  interesting  though  it  might  be. 

Very  few  parts  of  our  country  are  more  filled  with  historical  associations. 
Indian  legends,  mingled  with  a  vast  amount  of  verifiable  Indian  history; 
Revolutionary  stories,  with  a  record  of  honorable  action  surpassed  nowhere ; 
loyal  patriotism  in  the  days  of  the  Civil  War,  under  the  leadership  of  Governor 
Buckingham,  himself  a  resident  of  Norwich,  all  these  ofifer  a  wealth  of 
material  to  the  investigator.  Out  of  the  great  mass  of  historical  writings 
inspired  by  such  a  splendid  past  there  looms  up  a  background,  a  heritage 
of  memories,  that  should  urge  on  every  citizen  of  New  London  County  today 
to  better  citizenship,  to  more  devoted  public  service. 

From  some  of  these  records  and  addresses  we  have  quoted — they  were 
written  by  men  and  women  who  were  near  the  events  described — for  we 
believe  that  true  patriotism  is  a  deep  sentiment  toward  one's  native  land, 
not  simply  a  series  of  outward  acts.  This  abiding  sentiment  of  affection 
and  unselfishness  in  a  people,  as  in  an  individual,  is  rooted  in  memory.  By 
the  memory  of  earlier  days,  by  knowledge  of  the  sacrifices  of  earlier  patriots 
who  made  liberty  possible  for  us,  will  the  true  spirit  of  Americanism  be  best 
nourished.  Nor  is  the  Indian  history  without  value.  Even  if,  in  the  light  of 
history,  "the  noble  red  man"  of  Cooper's  novels  seems  a  somewhat  idealized 
figure,  surely  nowhere  else  in  America  may  be  found  a  better  typical  picture 
of  the  early  relations  of  the  white  settler  and  the  aborigine.  We  see  them 
both  at  their  best  and  at  their  worst.  We  have  the  grim  picture  of  John 
Mason  as  he  leads  his  resolute  forces  on  to  the  utter  destruction  of  the  Pe- 
quots,  and  we  have  the  picture  of  Uncas  in  all  things,  "Wauregan,"  living 
m  unbroken  amity  with  the  Norwich  colonists;  we  learn  of  Samson  Occum, 
the  Mohican  who  visited  England  and  brought  back  ten  thousand  pounds  to 
Dartmouth  College.  The  present  work,  then,  aims  to  emphasize  only  such 
features  of  the  early  history  of  our  country  as  are  helpful  to  the  modern 
reader  in  visualizing  the  days  of  occupation,  of  settlement,  and  colonial  devel- 
opment, the  essential  background  by  which  to  emphasize  modem  conditions. 
Our  history  for  the  last  fifty  years,  inasmuch  as  this  has  not  been  printed 
m  any  one  volume,  will  be  described  with  greater  minuteness.     It  is  hoped 

2014928 


that  this  portion  of  the  work  may  be  helpful  for  some  years  to  come  as  a 
storehouse  of  information. 

Among  the  well  informed  persons  who  have  labored  in  this  under- 
taking, the  principal  place  is  to  be  given  to  Professor  Henry  A.  Tirrell, 
Principal  of  the  Norwich  Free  Academy,  as  the  author  of  the  exhaustive  chap- 
ter on  Education,  and  writer  on  other  topics.  Other  more  important  papers 
and  of  enduring  value  are  those  on  "Church  History,"  by  Rev.  Henry  W. 
Hulbert,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Groton;  on  "Medicine, 
Physicians  and  Surgeons,"  by  Charles  B.  Graves,  M.D.,  former  President 
Connecticut  State  Medical  Society ;  on  "Insurance,"  by  Walter  F.  Lester, 
President  New  London  County  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company;  on  "Vol- 
unteer and  Paid  Fire  Departments,"  by  Howard  L.  Stanton,  Chief  Norwich 
Fire  Department,  and  on  "Old  Families  and  Old  Homes  of  Norwich"  and 
kindred  topics,"  by  Mrs.  Edna  Miner  Rogers,  Regent  of  Faith  Trumbull 
Chapter,  D.  A.  R. 

The  publishers  of  the  History,  The  Lewis  Historical  Publishing  Com- 
pany, through  its  agents,  editors  and  official  staff,  has  secured  and  arranged 
all  the  genealogical  and  biographical  matter  proper,  which  appears  in  the 
work,  and  for  this  material  the  Editor-in-Chief  bears  no  responsibility. 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  I — General  Facts  About  New  London  County — Naming  and 
Earliest  Settlement  of  the  Twenty-one  Towns — Scenery — Geography 
— The  Aborigines — Uncas  and  the  Mohegans — John  Mason — Mian- 
tonomah — Early  Government — Customs  of  Settlers — Journal  of 
Madam   Sarah   Knight — Religious   Conditions         .         _         .         .       i 

Chapter  II — The  Beginnings  of  Education — General  Definition  of  Edu- 
cation— Outline  of  Educational  Development  in  Connecticut — Early 
Schools  in  Norwich — Early  Schools  in  New  London — The  "Norwich 
Tests" — The  District  System — Supervision — Trade  Schools — Model 
Schools — Normal  Schools — Education  of  Indians  in  Early  Days — 
Founding  of  Dartmouth — Samson  Occum — Dr.  Nott's  Sermon — 
Music  Vale  Seminary         ----.....     ^i 

Chapter  III — An  Era  of  Unrest — Revolutionary  War — Nathan  Hale — 
Battle  of  Groton  Heights — Rathbun's  Narrative — Account  of  Rufus 
Avery — Of  Stephen  Hempstead — Allyn's  Account  of  Death  of  Col. 
Ledyard — The  War  of  1812 — Early  New  London  Whalers — Early 
Manufactures — Life  of  Daniel  W.  Coit        ------     59 

Chapter  IV — Little  Known  Facts  About  New  London  County — Begin- 
nings of  Railroads  and  Telegraphs — Shipbuilding — Adams  Express 
Company — Donald  G.  Mitchell's  "Looking  Back  at  Boyhood" — 
Ancestors  of  Six  Presidents — Father  of  Oliver  and  Matthew  Perry 
— Wolves  in  Early  Days — Shaw  Mansion — Celebrated  Sons  and 
Daughters  of  New   London   County -    8l 

Chapter  V — The  City  of  New  London — "Edelwiss"— John  Winthrop 
the  Younger — Natal  Day — Bride  Brook — Home  Lots — Will  of  Mary 
Harries — Estate  of  Governor  Winthrop — Anecdotes  of  Revolutionary 
War — Arnold's  Account  of  the  Expedition  Against  New  London — 
Whale  Fisheries  at  New  London  and  Stonington — Stephen  Decatur — 
Voyage  of  the  "Savannah" — The  Early  Press — Poem  on  the  Old  Mill    97 

Chapter  VI— The  City  of  Norwich— Stedman's  "Inland  City"— Deed  of 
Norwich — First  Proprietors — Settlement  from  Saybrook — Life  of 
Capt.  Mason — The  Early  Press — Visits  of  Eminent  Men — Effects 
of  War — Benedict  Arnold — Anecdotes  of  Early  Times — Early  Indus- 
tries— Early  Physicians — Lincoln  at  Norwich — Data  About  Founders 
and  Interesting  Spots -  133 

Chapter  VII — Other  Towns  of  New  London  County — Colchester — East 
Lyme — Franklin — Griswold — Groton — Lebanon — Eminent  M  e  n — 
The  War  Office— "Brother  Jonathan"— Early  Settlers— Lisbon— 
Lyme  and  Old  Lyme — Salem — Sprague — Stonington — Voluntown — 
Waterford 

Chapter  VIII — New  London  County  Today — Its  Population — Improve- 
ments— Scenery — Historic     Relics — Public     Buildings — Industries — 


177 


VI 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


Grand  Lists — Index  of  Manufactures— Anniversary  Celebrations  at 
New  London  and  Norwich         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -211 

Chapter  IX— Miscellaneous  Information — Resources  of  the  County — 
Character  of  Industry  in  Each  Town — Assets — Changing  Population 
— Financial  Statistics — Lists  of  Public  Oflficials — Significant  dates 
— Representatives  and  Senators  (State)         ------  227 

Chapter  X — Educational  Institutions — Connecticut  College — Norwich 
Free  Academy — Bacon  Academy — The  Bulkeley  School — Williams 
Memorial  Institute — New  London  Vocational  High  School — Mystic 
Oral  School   for  the  Deaf— The  Wheeler  School         -         -         -         243 

Chapter  XI — Religion  in  N'cw  London  County — Early  Conditions — 
Various  Types  of  Churches — Theological  Differences — Foreign 
Service- — Connection  Between  Church  and  School — The  Colonial 
State  Church— Preaching  to  the  Indians — "Rogerenes" — "Half-Way 
Covenant" — Parishes  and  Towns — The  Congregational  Denomina- 
tion—Baptist Churches  in  the  County — The  Episcopal  Church — 
Methodism — Various  Religious  Bodies — Roman  Catholic  Churches 
— Universalists         ----------         271 

Chapter  XII — Counts  and  Lawyers  in  New  London  County — New  Lon- 
don District — Norwich  District — Bozrah  District — Colchester  Dis- 
trict— East  Lyme  District — Groton  District — Lebanon  District 
— Ledyard  District — Lyme  District — Montville  District — North 
Stonington  District — Old  Lyme  District — Salem  District — Stoning- 
ton  District — Lav.  vers  of  Note — Members  of  County  Bar — Memorial 
Addresses — County   Court  House — Eulogies         -         -         -         -         323 

Chapter  XIII — Medicine  and  Medical  Men — Early  Life  of  the  Pioneers — 
Primitive  Conditions  of  Medical  Practice — Epidemic  Diseases — 
Cholera — Medical    Organization — Early    Physicians — References         363 

Chapter  XIV — New  London  County  Press — New  London  Day — Nor- 
wich Bulletin — Cooley's  Weekly — Editors  and  Mana.s^er?         -       -       401 

Chapter  XV — Banks — Early  Banking— Famous  Banks — National  Bank 
System — Union  Trust  and  Bank  Company — New  London  City 
National  Bank — Merchants'  National  Bank  of  Norwich — Norwich 
Savings  Society — Thames  National  Bank,  Norwich — Savings  Bank 
of  New  London — National  Whaling  Bank — Mystic  River  National 
Bank — First  National  Bank  of  Stonington — National  Bank  of  Com- 
merce of  New  London — Uncas  National  Bank — Groton  Savings  Bank 
— Chelsea  Savings  Bank — Mariners  Savings  Bank — Dime  Savings 
Bank — Jewett  City  Savings  Bank — Jewett  City  Trust  Company — 
Bankers  Trust  Company — Pawcatuck  Bank  and  Trust  Company — 
Winthrop  Trust  Company         --------         423 

Chapter  XVI — Fire  Insurance  in  New  London  County — A  Primitive 
Necessity — First  American  Companies — Mutual  Assurance  Company 
of  the  City  of  Norwich — Last  of  Eighteenth  and  First  of  Nineteenth 
Century — The  Norwich  Fire  Insurance  Company — A  New  London 
Company — Other   Early    Companies   in    Connecticut — New    London 


CONTENTS  vii 

County  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company — Fire  Insurance  Agents  in 
the  County — List  of  Agencies  in  the  County        -        -        -        -         457 

Chapter  XVII — Norwich  Fire  Department — Early  Days — Serious  Fires 
— Actions  of  Common  Council — Norwich  Companies  at  Boston  Fire 
in  1872 — Various  Ordinances  Regulating  the  Fire  Department — 
Statistics  of  Alarms  "Rung  In" — Pension  Fund — Equipment       -         475 

Chapter  XVIII — New  London  Fire  Department — Early  History — First 

Companies — Chiefs  and  Other  Officers — Groton  Fire  Company     -         489 

Chapter    XIX — Community    Activities — History    of    Various     Firms — 

Manufacturing — Taftville — Civic   Spirit         -         ...         -         493 

Chapter  XX — Fraternal  Brotherhoods — Masonic — Odd  Fellows — Other 
Orders — Fourteen  Lodges  of  New  London  County — First  Building 
in  the  World  erected  by  Masons  exclusively  for  Masonry — Elks         507 

Chapter  XXI — Patrons  of  Husbandry — History  of  the  Grange — Oliver 

11.  Kellcy — Granges  in  New  London  County — Picture  of  the  Grange  521 

Chapter  XXII — The  Red  Cross — The  Four  Chapters  of  New  London 
County — Work  of  Norwich  Chapter — New  London  Chapter — Vari- 
ous Activities        ----.---..-         529 

Chapter  XXIII — Notable  Places  and  Homes — Washington's  Visits  to  the 
County — Stage  Coach  and  Tavern  Days — Various  Famous  Taverns 
— Potteries  of  Norwich — Silversmiths  of  New  London  County — Pine- 
hurst — The  Barrel  House        ..-.--..        j-j'j 

Chapter  XXIV— Military  History— Civil  War— Spanish  War— World 
War — Muster  Roll  of  Spanish  War — Honor  Roll  of  Various  Towns  581 

Addenda — Mary    Lydia    Bolles    Branch — Benedict   Arnold — The   Groton 

Massacre — Fire  Insurance — Norwich  Fire  Department        -         -        617 


ui.ii  i,ii;nTiror.SE.  nkw  ixindok. 


CHAPTER  I 

GENERAL  FACTS  ABOUT  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

The  Early   Towns — Natural   Features   of   the   Region— The   Indian   Occupants — First 
White  Settlers — Illuminating  Documents  from  the  Past. 

New  London  County,  occupying  the  southeastern  part  of  Connecticut, 
is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  on  the  south  by  Long 
Island  Sound,  on  the  west  by  Middlesex  and  Tolland  counties,  and  on  the 
north  by  Hartford,  Tolland  and  Windham  counties. 

The  county,  with  an  area  of  approximately  seven  hundred  square  miles, 
is  composed  of  twenty-one  towns,  Bozrah,  Colchester,  East  Lyme,  Franklin, 
Griswold,  Groton,  Lebanon,  Ledyard,  Lisbon,  Lyme,  Montville,  New  London, 
North  Stonington,  Norwich,  Old  Lyme,  Preston,  Salem,  Sprague,  Stoning- 
ton,  Voluntown,  Waterford ;  and  has  a  population  (census  of  1920)  of  155,311. 

This  county  was  one  of  the  first  four  counties  of  the  State,  organized 
in  1666,  and  originally  included  a  considerable  part  of  the  present  Middle- 
sex county,  extending  as  far  west  as  Clinton.  Of  the  five  first  cities  of 
Connecticut  chartered  in  1784,  New  London  county  had  two.  New  London 
and  Norwich.     Of  the  twenty-one  towns  of  the  county: 

New  London  was  settled  as  "Pequot"  in  1646 ;  named  from  London, 
England,  and  authorized  as  a  town  in  1658. 

Stonington  was  settled  in  1649  and  named  Stonington  in  1666. 

Norwich,  named  from  Norwich,  England,  in  1659,  was  settled  by  a  Say- 
brook  colony  in  1660. 

Lyme,  named  from  Lyme  Regis,  England,  in  1667,  was  set  off  from 
Saybrook  in  1665. 

Colchester  was  settled  and  named  from  Colchester,  England,  in  1699. 

Preston  was  named  in  1687  from  Preston,  England. 

Lebanon,  named  from  Lebanon  in  Syria,  was  incorporated  in  1700. 

Groton,  set  off  from  New  London  in  1704,  was  named  from  the  English 
home  of  Governor  John  Winthrop  in  1705. 

Voluntown,  "Volunteers  Town,"  named  in  1708,  was  settled  in  1719. 

Bozrah,  with  Biblical  name,  was  set  off  from  Norwich  in  1786. 

Franklin,  set  off  from  Norwich,  in  1786,  was  named  for  Benjamin 
Franklin. 

Lisbon,  set  off  from  Norwich  in  1786,  was  named  from  Lisbon,  Portugal. 

Montville,  set  off  from  New  London  in  1786,  took  the  French  name  of 
"Mount  Ville." 

Waterford,  set  off  from  New  London  in  1801,  took  a  name  descriptive 
of  its  nature. 

North  Stonington  was  set  off  from  Stonington  in  1807. 

Griswold,  named  from  Governor  Roger  Griswold,  was  set  off  from 
Preston  in  1815. 

N.L.— 1-1 


2  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Salem,  named  from  Salem,  Massachusetts,  was  set  off  from  Colchester, 
Lyme,  and  Montville  in  1879. 

Ledyard,  named  from  Colonel  William  Ledyard  of  Fort  Griswold  fame, 
was  set  off  from  Groton  in  1836. 

East  Lyme  was  set  off  from  Lyme  and  Waterford  in  1839. 

Old  Lyme  was  set  off  from  Lyme  in  1855,  and  named  Old  Lyme  in  1857. 

Sprague,  named  from  its  founder,  William  Sprague,  was  set  off  from 
Lisbon  and  Franklin  in  1861. 

The  following  note  is  prefixed  to  the  list  of  Connecticut  towns  printed 
in  the  Connecticut  Register  and  Manual  (1920). 

Until  1700,  almost  the  only  official  action  of  the  colonial  government  (General 
Court)  in  regard  to  town  organization,  was  to  authorize  the  town  name,  usually- 
chosen  by  its  leading  man,  from  his  home  in  England.  In  October,  1700,  we  find 
implied  or  quasi  incorporation,  such  as  exists  to  this  day,  in  the  records  :  "This  assem- 
bly doth  grant  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Lebanon  all  such  immunities,  privi- 
ledges  and  powers,  as  generally  other  townes  within  this  Colonic  have  and  doe  enjoy." 
The  authoritative  legal  definition  of  a  town  in  England,  contemporary  with  the  earliest 
Connecticut  settlements,  is  given  in  the  first  edition  of  "Coke's  Commentaries  upon 
Littleton,"  published  1628;  "It  can  not  be  a  town  in  law,  unless  it  hath,  or  in  past  time 
hath  had,  a  church,  and  celebration  of  Divine  services,  sacraments  and  burials."  The 
church  bodies  which  moved  bodily  with  their  pastors  from  Massachusetts  to  Con- 
necticut, proceeded  to  exercise  the  secular  powers  which  we  regard  as  those  of  the 
town,  but  the  English  township  is  known  by  its  ecclesiastical  name  of  parish.  Several 
of  our  towns  were  first  set  off  as  parishes,  from  great  town  tracts;  yet  the  town  in 
Connecticut  colony  essentially  separated  church  and  state  in  government,  in  that 
it  never  restricted  political  suffrage  to  church-members.  As  to  dates,  the  official 
colonial  records  are  followed,  as  soon  as  they  begin,  1C36. 

For  the  beauty  and  variety  of  its  natural  scenery,  New  London  county 
is  excelled  by  very  few  regions  of  equal  area.  Its  southern  shore,  from  the 
broad  sweep  of  the  Connecticut  river  eastward  along  a  coast  of  singular 
charm,  with  its  jutting  points  and  its  alluring  inlets;  by  Niantic  bay,  which 
Governor  Winthrop,  as  he  looked  off  from  the  heights  above,  called  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  spots  he  had  ever  seen,  outward  to  the  majestic  estuary 
of  the  Thames  with  its  noble  harbor ;  still  eastward  by  the  beautiful  islets 
of  Noank  and  Mystic  till  that  point  is  reached  where  the  States  of  Rhode 
Island,  New  York  and  Connecticut  meet  near  the  harbor  of  Stonington,  is 
as  wonderful  today  as  when  the  Indians  gazed  upon  its  beauties. 

And  the  scenery  of  the  coast  is  matched  by  the  wooded  hills,  the  rushing 
streams,  the  placid  lakes,  the  rich  valleys,  farther  inland.  The  summer 
visitor  today  is  found  in  all  parts  of  the  county,  not  only  in  the  summer 
colonies  built  up  near  the  coast,  but  in  many  a  broad  estate  whose  owner 
is  content  to  preserve  the  forest,  the  rockbound  glens,  the  rich  verdure  that 
Nature  has  so  generously  supplied. 

The  chief  waters  of  the  county  besides  its  large  ponds  and  lakes  are  the 
Connecticut,  Thames,  Shetucket,  Quinnebaug,  Yantic,  Pawcatuck,  Mystic, 
Poquonock,  and  Niantic  rivers,  all  flowing  in  a  general  southerly  course  to 


GENERAL  FACTS  3 

the  Sound.  Its  navigable  waters  and  its  abounding  water  power  have  con- 
tributed largely  to  its  economic  development,  from  the  early  days  when 
extensive  commerce  sprang  up  with  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  to  the  later 
times  when  manufacturing  founded  the  fortunes  of  many  of  its  citizens.  With 
such  natural  advantages  Connecticut  enterprise  and  ingenuity  have  made 
possible  a  growth  far  beyond  the  expectations  of  the  men  of  even  fifty  years 
ago.  One  part  of  this  history  will  be  devoted  to  this  remarkable  expansion 
of  recent  years. 

No  true  conception  of  the  growth  of  the  county  is  possible  without  an 
understanding  of  the  character  and  customs  of  the  early  settlers,  the  diffi- 
culties they  had  to  overcome,  their  relations  with  the  Indians,  their  participa- 
tion in  the  broader  colonial  interests,  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  in  the  affairs 
of  the  State  and  Nation. 

The  first  settlers,  many  of  them  of  Pilgrim  stock  and  practically  all  of 
them  of  Puritan  origin,  had  the  same  deep  religious  convictions  and  the 
same  stamina  that  other  New  England  colonists  had.  They  had  inherited 
from  their  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  a  genius  for  self-government,  which, 
checked  by  the  Stuart  despotism  in  England,  burst  into  bloom  in  the  new 
life  of  a  New  W^orld.  Hardships  were  endured  and  overcome.  Yet  in  the 
midst  of  a  severe  struggle  for  existence,  they  never  lost  sight  of  the  great 
things  of  life.  Religion,  education,  and  morality  were  the  strong  supports 
of  local  governments  founded  on  law  and  order.  Difficulties  strengthened 
their  characters  both  individually  and  collectively.  It  may  well  be  said 
that  the  menace  of  hostile  Indians  was  one  of  the  main  incentives  to  co- 
operation amongst  the  early  settlers  of  New  England. 

The  Pequot  War  was  undoubtedly  the  first  step  toward  the  settlement 
of  New  London  county,  for  it  was  not  until  that  tribe  had  been  virtually 
annihilated  that  it  was  safe  for  colonists  to  settle  in  this  region.  Of  the  many 
anecdotes  connected  with  the  war,  some  will  be  given  in  the  histories  of 
separate  towns.  We  print  a  general  survey  from  Kurd's  "History  of  New 
London  County": 

The  territory  was  preoccupied  by  the  Pequots.  a  powerful  tribe  of 
Indians  belonging  to  the  widespread  Algonquin  or  Delaware  race.  This 
powerful  tribe  had  by  their  cruelty  become  the  dread  of  the  whites  far  and 
near.  Rendered  bold  by  numbers,  and  jealous  of  every  encroachment,  they 
had  resolved  upon  nothing  less  than  the  utter  extermination  of  the  whites, 
and  shrank  from  no  means,  however  appalling,  which  might  conduce  to  the 
accomplishment  of  their  bloody  purpose.  Massachusetts  had  in  1634,  with 
rnuch  effort,  induced  them  to  allow  the  peaceable  settlement  of  certain  por- 
tions of  their  domain,  and  to  offer  satisfaction  for  former  outrages.  But  the 
natives  were  slow  to  fulfill  the  conditions  of  this  treaty,  and  Captain  Endicott 
was  sent  out  by  the  Massachusetts  colony,  at  the  head  of  ninety  men,  to 
enforce  the  treaty  and  to  chastise  them  for  their  past  offenses. 

This  ill-advised  expedition  failed  utterly  of  its  objects,  and  only  tended 
to  exasperate  the  Pequots,  who  during  the' succeeding  fall  and  winter  were 
untiring  in  their  attempts  to  league  the  other  Indians  with  them  in  a  war 
of  extermination  against  the  whites,  and  redoubled  their  own  efforts  to  rid 


4  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

themselves  of  the  noxious  strangers.  Savages  lurked  in  every  covert,  and 
there  was  no  safety  for  life  or  property.  The  colonists  could  not  travel 
abroad,  or  even  cultivate  their  fields,  but  at  the  peril  of  their  lives.  Their 
cattle  were  driven  off,  their  houses  burned,  the  navigation  of  the  river  was 
seriously  impeded,  and  even  the  fort  at  Saybrook  was  in  a  state  of  constant 
siege.  By  spring  the  situation  had  become  critical  in  the  extreme.  Nearly 
thirty  murders  had  been  committed,  and  utter  ruin  threatened  the  colony 
unless  decisive  measures  should  at  once  be  taken.  In  this  emergency  a 
General  Court  was  convened  at  Hartford  on  the  nth  of  May,  1637,  at  which 
it  was  decided  to  proceed  at  once  to  an  offensive  war  against  the  Pequots, 
and  for  the  first  campaign  to  send  out  a  force  of  ninety  men  under  Capt.  John 
Mason,  then  in  command  of  the  fort  at  Saybrook. 

About  this  time,  Mason  and  the  warrior  Uncas  met  and  formed  a 
temporary  alliance,  which  was,  however,  destined  to  continue  without  serious 
interruption  for  a  long  series  of  years,  and  prove  of  great  and  lasting  benefit 
to  the  settlements.  Uncas  was  related  both  by  birth  and  marriage  to  the 
Pequot  royal  family,  but  soon  after  his  marriage  he  became  involved  in  diffi- 
culties, the  nature  of  which  is  not  exactly  known,  which  resulted  in  his 
banishment  to  the  Narragansett  country.  He  was  afterwards  permitted  to 
return,  but  a  recurrence  of  the  same  troubles  led  to  his  banishment  for  a 
second  and  even  a  third  time.  He  thus  at  length  became  permanently  exiled 
from  his  own  people,  and  we  find  him  upon  the  Connecticut  river,  near  the 
infant  settlements  of  Hartford  and  Windsor,  in  the  spring  of  1637,  at  the  head 
of  about  seventy  warriors.  Both  Mason  and  Uncas  were  eminently  fitted  to 
be  military  leaders,  each  of  his  own  race.  Mason  possessed  marked  military 
tastes  which  had  been  developed  and  trained  in  the  wars  of  the  Netherland 
under  Lord  Fairfax ;  while  Uncas,  by  nature  brave  and  shrewd,  had,  as  a 
member  of  the  royal  family  of  a  strong  and  warlike  nation,  abundant  oppor- 
tunity to  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  Indian  warfare. 
An  alliance  of  two  such  representative  men  of  the  two  races  then  competing 
upon  American  soil  could  not  fail  to  make  an  impress  upon  their  peculiar 
surroundings.  Uncas  agreed  to  join  the  expedition  with  his  warriors,  and 
the  united  forces  embarked  at  Hartford  on  the  20th  of  May  of  the  same  year 
and  proceeded  to  drop  down  the  river.  In  the  course  of  the  voyage  the 
Indians  had  opportunity  to  demonstrate  their  fidelity,  which  had  been  unjustly 
suspected  by  some.  As  the  water  in  the  river  was  low  and  the  passage  tedious, 
the  Indians  were  at  their  own  request  allowed  to  disembark  and  proceed 
along  the  bank.  When  near  Saybrook,  they  met  and  defeated  a  party  of 
Pequots,  killing  seven  and  taking  one  prisoner.  After  their  arrival  at  Say- 
brook, the  commandant  of  the  fort,  still  distrustful  of  Uncas,  addressed  the 
sachem  as  follows:  "You  say  you  will  help  Captain  Mason,  but  I  will  first 
see  it ;  therefore  send  twenty  men  to  Bass  river,  for  there  went  last  night 
six  Indians  there  in  a  canoe;  fetch  them,  dead  or  alive,  and  you  shall  go  with 
Mason,  or  you  shall  not."  Uncas  did  as  he  was  required.  His  warriors 
found  the  enemy,  killed  four  of  them,  and  took  another  prisoner.  This  exploit 
of  the  sachem  was  regarded  by  Lieutenant  Gardiner  as  a  sure  pledge  of  his 
fidelity. 

Captain  Mason  had  received  instructions  to  land  at  Pequot  Harbor,  but 
his  military  judgment  led  him  to  sail  direct  to  the  Narragansett  country  and 
make  his  attack  upon  the  enemy  from  a  point  whence  they  would  least  expect 
it.  He  accordingly  proceeded  thither,  and  on  Saturday,  May  30th,  towards 
evening,  dropped  anchor  off  the  shores  of  the  Narragansett.  As  there  was  a 
strong  northwest  wind,  they  remained  on  shipboard  until  Tuesday,  when 
Mason  landed  and  marched  directly  to  the  residence  of  Canonicus,  the  Nar- 


GENERAL  FACTS  5 

ragansett  chief,  and  informed  him  of  his  design  of  attacking  the  Pequots  in 
their  strongholds,  and  demanded  a  free  passage  through  the  Narragansett 
country.  The  request  was  readily  granted,  and  Miantonomoh,  nephew  of 
Canonicus,  suggested  that  the  numbers  of  the  English  and  Mohegans  were 
too  small  for  an  invasion  of  the  Pequot  country,  and  volunteered  to  send  two 
hundred  of  his  braves  with  the  expedition,  though  he  did  not  himself  offer 
to  accompany  them. 

On  the  following  morning  the  vessels  were  manned  with  a  small  force, 
as  a  larger  could  not  be  spared,  and  were  ordered  to  sail  for  the  mouth  of 
Pequot  river.  The  land  force,  consisting  of  seventy  Englishmen,  and  sixty 
Mohegan  warriors  under  Uncas,  with  the  addition  of  two  hundred  Narra- 
gansett volunteers,  commenced  its  march  westward.  After  proceeding  about 
twenty  miles  through  a  rough  country,  with  only  a  narrow  Indian  foot-path 
for  their  passageway,  they  arrived  at  a  place  called  Nehantic,  where  they 
remained  overnight.  When  the  English  resumed  their  march  on  the  follow- 
ing morning  they  were  overtaken  by  others  of  the  Narragansett  people,  so 
that  they  were  followed,  as  they  supposed,  by  near  five  hundred  warriors. 
As  the  da}'  was  warm  and  the  way  rough,  several  of  the  men  fainted  from 
exposure  and  want  of  food.  After  a  march  of  about  twelve  miles  they  reached 
a  ford  in  the  Pawcatuck  river,  where  a  halt  was  made  for  rest  and  refresh- 
ment. It  had  been  ascertained  that  the  majority  of  the  Pequot  warriors  were 
in  two  forts  or  inclosures  of  palisades,  one  of  which  was  commanded  by 
Sassacus  in  person,  and  both  regarded  by  the  Indians  as  within  and  without 
impregnable.  Mason  had  originally  designed  to  divide  his  forces  and  attack 
both  places  simultaneously,  but  from  information  received  during  the  halt 
upon  the  Pawcatuck  he  learned  that  the  forts  were  situated  at  too  great  a 
distance  apart  to  allow  of  a  division  of  his  force,  and  he  decided  to  advance 
at  once  upon  the  fort  on  Pequot  Hill.  The  Narragansetts,  on  learning  of 
his  design  to  attack  Sassacus  in  his  stronghold,  were  smitten  with  deadly 
fear.  "Sassacus,"  they  said,  "was  all  one  god,  and  could  not  be  killed."  So 
great  was  their  trepidation  that  a  hundred  of  their  number  beat  a  precipitate 
retreat,  and  reported  in  the  Providence  plantation  that  the  English  had  all 
fallen. 

At  this  time  Mason  called  Uncas  to  him,  and  asked  him  what  he  thought 
the  Indians  would  do.  "The  Narragansetts,"  replied  this  brave  sachem,  "will 
all  leave  us,"  "but  as  for  himself  'he  would  never  leave  us';  and  so  it 
proved,  for  which  expression  I  shall  never  forget  him.  Indeed,  he  was  a 
great  friend,  and  did  great  service."  The  Pawcatuck  was  the  last  boundary 
before  the  country  of  the  Pequots,  and  as  the  Narragansetts  found  them- 
selves nearing  the  strongholds  of  their  dreaded  rivals,  their  timidity  increased 
and  all  but  a  handful  turned  back.  The  Mohegans,  however,  encouraged  by 
their  chief,  mustered  the  courage  to  proceed.  The  small  army  advanced 
cautiously  till  towards  evening,  when  they  came  to  a  little  swamp  between 
two  hills,  near  what  are  now  called  Porter's  Rocks,  where  they  halted  for 
the  night.  Rising  at  an  early  hour  on  the  following  morning,  they  reached 
the  fortress  a  little  before  daybreak.  The  plan  of  attack  had  been  so 
arranged  that  Mason  was  to  approach  the  enemy  through  the  main  entrance 
on  the  northeast  side  with  one  division,  while  Underbill  was  to  make  an 
attack  on  the  southwestern  entrance  with  his  division.  Uncas  with  his 
force  was  to  form  an  outer  line  to  act  as  circumstances  might  indicate.  When 
within  a  rod  or  two  of  the  fort  a  dog  barked,  and  the  alarm  was  given.  The 
troops  rushed  on,  discharging  their  muskets  through  the  palisades,  and  then 
forced  an  entrance.  Mason,  with  his  party,  drove  the  Indians  along  the  main 
avenue  of  their  fortress  towards  the  west  till  they  were  met  by  Underbill 


6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

and  his  division,  who  had  effected  an  entrance  upon  that  side,  when,  finding 
themselves  between  two  fires,  the}^  were  forced  to  retreat  to  their  wigwams, 
where  a  desperate  resistance  was  made.  For  a  few  moments  the  conflict 
seemed  doubtful,  when  Mason,  realizing  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  hit 
upon  the  expedient  of  burning  out  the  foe,  and  snatching  a  brand  from  the 
fire  applied  it  to  the  dry  matting  of  a  wigwam.  The  fire  spread  with  great 
rapidity,  and  the  whole  seventy  wigwams  were  soon  in  flames.  The  English 
retired  without  the  wigwams,  and  Uncas  and  his  followers  formed  a  circular 
line  close  in  the  rear  of  the  English.  The  consternation  of  the  Pequots  was 
so  great  that  but  few  attempted  to  escape.  About  six  or  seven  were  made 
prisoners  by  the  English,  eighteen  were  captured  by  the  Mohegans,  and 
seven  only  made  their  escape.  It  so  happened  that  one  hundred  and  fifty 
warriors  from  the  other  fortress  were  this  night  in  the  fort  upon  Pequot  Hill, 
which  made  the  victory  still  more  complete. 

This  famous  encounter  occurred  on  Friday,  June  5th.  The  same  day,  at 
an  early  hour,  the  small  fleet  entered  Pequot  Harbor.  As  Mason's  force  was 
about  to  move  in  the  direction  of  the  vessels,  a  party  of  Indian  warriors 
approached  them  from  the  other  fort,  but  one  or  two  volleys  from  their  trusty 
weapons  served  to  keep  them  at  a  safe  distance.  The  few  Narragansetts  that 
hung  upon  the  rear  of  the  little  column  as  it  moved  steadily  up  the  hill  were 
not  slow  in  making  their  appearance  when  the  contest  was  decided,  evincing 
all  the  courage  of  tried  veterans.  They  finall}^  accompanied  Captain  Mason 
to  the  harbor,  and  afforded  some  assistance  to  those  who  conveyed  the 
wounded.  The  total  loss  on  the  part  of  the  English  was  two  killed  and 
twenty  wounded. 

Sassacus  at  this  critical  period  was  in  the  fortress  on  Fort  Hill,  where 
he  was  loudly  denounced  by  his  warriors  as  the  procuring  cause  of  their  late 
disaster  at  the  other  fort.  The  Pequots  at  this  fort  were  also  greatly  exas- 
perated at  the  course  of  Uncas  and  his  followers,  and  caused  all  of  their  near 
relatives  to  be  slain,  except  seven  who  made  their  escape. 

On  the  day  after  the  battle,  a  council  of  the  Pequot  nation  was  held  to 
decide  upon  their  future  course  of  action,  and  after  a  hasty  deliberation  they 
resolved  to  leave  their  country,  but  not  till  they  had  destroyed  their  fortress 
and  wigwams  and  such  remaining  property  as  could  not  be  carried  away. 
The  principal  band,  headed  by  Sassacus  in  person,  fled  westward  and  did  not 
make  any  considerable  halt  till  they  had  reached  a  large  swamp  in  Saco,  the 
present  township  of  Fairfield.  Thither  they  were  pursued  by  Captain  Mason 
and  his  faithful  ally  Uncas.  Captain  Stoughton  also  accompanied  the  expe- 
dition in  command  of  a  company  from  jNIassachusetts.  The  fugitives  were 
discovered  in  their  new  quarters,  and  were  without  difSculty  routed  and 
utterly  dispersed.  Sassacus  did  not  risk  a  halt  at  the  swamp,  but  with  a  few 
of  his  followers  fled  directly  to  the  Mohawk  country  for  a  safe  retreat,  but 
was  there  slain  by  the  nation,  and  his  scalp  was  sent  to  Connecticut  as  a 
trophy.  As  a  result  of  the  swamp  fight  and  the  death  of  their  late  chieftain, 
the  Pequot  nation  became  nearly  extinct.  .A.lthough  powerless  for  harm,  the 
few  remaining  fugitives  were  pursued  with  unrelenting  malignitv  by  the 
English.  Even  the  surrounding  tribes  were  not  permitted  to  harbor  them 
with  impunity,  but  were  required  by  treaty  and  otherwise  to  effect,  if  possible, 
their  utter  annihilation.  The  Pequots  were  not  allowed  to  dwell  in  their 
old  homes,  to  visit  the  graves  of  their  fathers,  or  to  be  called  Pequots  any 
more.  Lastly,  the  conquered  territory  was  not  to  be  claimed  b}^  the  sachems, 
but  to  be  considered  as  the  property  of  the  English  of  Connecticut,  as  their 
own  by  right  of  conquest. 

The  expedition  against  the  Pequots  is  the  most  remarkable  recorded  in 


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(TOWN  OP  NORWICH  l;   UECORDKD   IN  COUNTY  RECORD   BOOK,  AUGUST  20,   1663. 


GENERAL  FACTS  7 

American  history,  and  one  which  for  boldness  of  plan  and  brilliancy  of 
execution  may  well  claim  a  place  among;  the  most  daring  exploits  of  universal 
history.  The  Pequots  outnumbered  Mason's  forces  ten  to  one,  and  the  day 
might  have  been  lost  had  it  not  been  for  the  faithful  service  of  Uncas  and 
his  followers. 

Uncas,  as  lineal  descendant  of  the  royal  family,  laid  claim  to  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  conquered  territory,  and  while  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
the  portion  upon  the  Sound  was  given  up,  his  claim  to  the  remainder  of  the 
Pequot  country  was  admitted  by  the  English,  and  he  was  acknowledged  as 
the  lawful  sachem  of  a  territory  embracing  the  northern  half  of  New  London 
and  the  southern  half  of  Windham  and  Tolland  counties.  Some  of  the  sur- 
viving Pequots  had  been  assigned  him  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  and  many 
former  tributaries  of  the  vanquished  tribe  yielded  their  allegiance  to  him, 
and  added  to  his  power,  but  his  greatest  source  of  strength  lay  in  the  favor 
of  the  English,  which  he  had  fairly  won. 

His  rapid  rise  and  growing  favor  greatly  excited  the  envy  of  surrounding 
chieftains,  especially  of  those  of  the  Narragansetts  and  their  allies,  the  Con- 
necticut River  Indians,  and  they  were  untiring  in  their  efforts  to  effect  his 
overthrow.  At  first  they  endeavored  to  cause  a  rupture  between  Uncas  and 
the  English,  but  failing  in  this  scheme  they  next  attempted  to  take  his  life  by 
assassination.  Several  fruitless  endeavors  of  this  kind  were  made,  but  in 
these  diabolic  attempts  upon  his  life  he  was  more  than  a  match  for  them ; 
their  calumnies  and  their  murderous  designs  were  made  to  recoil  upon  their 
own  heads.  Failing  in  their  secret  plotting,  their  enmit}-  ripened  into  open 
warfare.  In  the  summer  of  1643,  only  six  years  after  the  rout  at  Mystic 
Fort,  Miantonomoh,  at  the  head  of  six  or  seven  hundred  warriors,  suddenly 
appeared  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Mohegan  country  by  a  succession  of  rapid 
marches.  He  moved  proudly  to  the  contest,  doubtless  with  the  assurance 
that  his  numerical  superiority  and  the  suddenness  of  his  irruption  would 
secure  for  him  an  easy  victory  over  his  foe  and  rival.  But  Uncas  was  not 
to  be  overcome  by  a  surprise.  He  hastily  collected  a  band  of  about  three 
hundred  warriors  and  met  the  invaders  upon  his  own  territory,  on  the  Great 
Plain,  probably  in  the  vicinity  of  the  present  Fair  Grounds  in  Norwich.  He 
felt  the  necessit}-,  however,  of  resorting  to  strategy  in  his  present  emergency, 
and  hence  proposed  a  parle}^  which  was  accepted,  and  the  two  chieftains  met 
on  the  plain  between  their  respective  armies.  Uncas  then  proposed  that  the 
fortunes  of  the  day  should  be  decided  by  themselves  in  a  single  combat,  and 
the  lives  of  their  warriors  spared,  saying,  "If  you  kill  me,  my  men  shall  be 
yours:  but  if  I  kill  you,  your  men  shall  be  mine." 

Miantonomoh  disdainfully  replied,  "I\Iy  men  came  to  fight,  and  they  shall 
fight."  Uncas  on  this  immediately  gave  a  preconcerted  signal  to  his  followers 
by  falling  fiat  upon  the  ground.  At  that  instant  a  shower  of  arrows  were 
discharged  upon  the  enemy,  and,  raising  the  war-cry,  the  Mohegans  rushed 
forward  with  L^ncas  at  their  head,  dashing  so  unexpectedly  upon  the  invading 
column  of  warriors  that  a  widespread  panic  ensued,  resulting  in  their  pre- 
cipitous and  headlong  flight  v,-ithout  even  a  show  of  resistance.  The  retreat- 
ing force  was  pursued  in  its  flight  to  Sachem's  Plain,  in  the  direction  of  the 
fords  of  the  Shctucket,  at  which  place  Miantonomoh  became  the  prisoner  of 
Uncas.  About  thirty  of  the  Narragansetts  were  slain,  and  among  the  pris- 
oners were  a  brother  of  Miantonomoh  and  two  sons  of  Canonicus.  Uncas 
kindl}"^  treated  his  royal  prisoner,  and  without  any  unnecessary  delay  took 
him  to  Hartford  and  surrendered  him  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  His 
case  was  laid  before  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  at  their  meeting 
in  Boston  in  September,  and  the  question  was  there  debated  whether  it  was 


8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

right  and  proper  to  put  the  prisoner  to  death.  As  the  commissioners  were 
unable  to  agree,  the  question  was  by  them  referred  to  an  ecclesiastical  council, 
which  gave  its  verdict  in  favor  of  his  execution.  It  was  further  decided  that 
the  sentence  should  be  carried  into  effect  by  Uncas,  but  without  torture. 
After  furnishing  a  sufficient  force  to  prevent  the  recapture  of  the  prisoner, 
Miantonomoh  was  surrendered  into  the  hands  of  Uncas,  who  took  him  to 
the  place  of  capture,  where  he  was  stricken  down  b}^  Waweequa,  a  brother 
of  Uncas.  A  monument  now  marks  the  site  of  this  tragical  event.  The 
Narragansetts  at  several  different  times  invaded  the  Mohegan  country,  im- 
patient to  avenge  the  death  of  their  late  chief,  but  Uncas  and  his  followers 
were  uninjured  on  account  of  the  aid  of  the  English,  which  was  always 
extended. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  first  settlements  in  the  county,  at  New  London 
and  Norwich,  were  made  under  the  leadership  of  some  of  the  most  influential 
men  of  New  England.  John  Winthrop,  the  younger,  who  received  a  grant 
at  Fisher's  Island,  given  first  by  Massachusetts  in  1640,  confirmed  by  Con- 
necticut in  1641,  and  by  New  York  in  1668,  received  from  Massachusetts  in 
1644  a  grant  of  a  "plantation  at  or  near  Pequot."  Here  he  lived  from  1646 
till  he  was  chosen  governor  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut  in  1657.  He  it  was 
who  secured  in  1662  that  famous  charter  from  Charles  II  which  was  saved 
from  Sir  Edmond  Andros  by  hiding  it  in  "The  Charter  Oak."  John  Mason, 
of  whom  we  shall  have  more  to  say,  was  one  of  the  early  leaders  of  the 
Norwich  settlement. 

Under  such  stalwart  leaders  as  these,  the  young  communities  grew  and 
flourished,  till  by  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  towns  were  found  at 
New  London,  Stonington,  Norwich,  Lyme,  Preston,  Colchester,  and  Lebanon. 
From  these  towns  were  set  off  the  other  fourteen  towns  as  stated  above. 

The  story  of  the  Charter  has  been  told  by  Mr.  Daniel  Howard  in  a 
document  on  Connecticut  history  issued  by  the  State  Board  of  Education : 

At  the  time  when  Connecticut  was  settled  and  when  her  infant  settle- 
ments formed  their  first  written  constitution,  the  king  of  England  paid  very 
little  attention  to  what  was  being  done  in  this  new  State.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  people  of  Connecticut  paid  very  little  attention  to  their  connection  with 
England.  They  did  not  even  mention  England  or  the  king  in  the  constitu- 
tion that  they  drew  up  in  1639. 

England  at  that  time  was  very  poorly  governed.  Her  king  was  a  tyrant 
who  tried  to  rule  by  illegal  methods.  The  people  would  not  submit  to  such 
a  rule,  and  in  1639  they  put  their  king  to  death.  No  one  wonders  under  such 
conditions  why  Connecticut  made  no  mention  of  the  fact  that  she  belonged 
to  England.  No  wonder  also  that  the  king  paid  little  attention  to  Connecticut, 
for  he  had  troubles  enough  at  home.  From  1649  to  1660  England  had  no 
king.  The  people  who  were  at  the  head  of  the  English  government  had  so 
many  troubles  on  their  side  of  the  ocean,  however,  that  they,  too,  paid  little 
attention  to  Connecticut. 

In  1660  a  great  change  in  affairs  took  place.  In  that  year  a  new  king, 
Charles  II,  came  to  the  English  throne.  With  him  came  peace  and  order 
in  England.  The  new  government  had  time  to  look  abroad  and  it  was  sure 
to  give  its  attention  to  what  was  going  on  in  America.  Connecticut  thought 
it  was  wise  for  her  to  maintain  friendly  relations  with  the  new  king.     She 


GENERAL  FACTS  9 

must  have  his  permission  to  carry  on  her  government,  and  she  might  need 
his  protection  to  shield  her  from  the  Indians,  the  Dutch,  and  other  enemies. 
Accordingly,  in  1661  the  Connecticut  people  took  the  necessary  steps  to  win 
the  king's  favor.  They  declared  that  their  settlements  were  English,  and 
that  they  themselves  being  the  king's  faithful  subjects  owed  allegiance  to 
the  English  crown. 

The  next  step  was  to  send  Governor  Winthrop  to  England  with  a  petition 
for  a  charter.  The  king  was  a  good-natured  man,  fond  of  honors  and  atten- 
tions, and  at  the  same  time  desirous  of  adding  to  his  wealth  and  revenue. 
So  when  Governor  Winthrop  presented  him  with  the  ring  that  the  king's 
father  had  given  to  the  governor's  grandfather,  his  heart  was  touched  with 
gratitude  and  affection.  When  the  governor  told  him  that  the  land  which 
the  settlers  had  bought  of  the  Indians  and  fought  for  at  the  peril  of  their 
lives  was  now  a  fertile  and  populous  territory  capable  of  adding  much  to 
the  wealth  and  income  of  his  kingdom,  he  was  favorably  impressed.  Lord 
Say,  Lord  Seal,  and  other  friends,  aided  Governor  Winthrop  in  persuading 
the  king  to  grant  the  charter  and  in  1662  it  received  the  roj'al  signature. 
Governor  Winthrop  received  two  copies  of  the  charter.  One  of  these  he 
sent  to  America  immediately.  The  other  copy  he  kept  in  his  possession  and 
brought  it  to  Hartford  himself.  How  the  people  at  Hartford,  Windsor  and 
Wethersfield  rejoiced!  New  Haven  at  first  objected  to  being  united  to  the 
three  river  towns,  for  she  had  hoped  to  remain  a  separate  colony.  Soon, 
however,  she  accepted  the  situation,  and  all  the  Connecticut  towns  were 
happily  united  under  one  government. 

Under  this  liberal  charter  the  colony  grew  and  prospered  for  the  next 
twenty-five  years.  The  form  of  government  was  popular,  for  the  people 
were  required  simply  to  make  no  laws  contrary  to  those  of  England.  The 
charter  guaranteed  to  the  colony  substantially  the  same  rights  and  privileges 
that  the  people  had  claimed  for  themselves  when  they  made  the  constitution 
of  1639.  It  was  the  people's  ideal  of  what  a  charter  ought  to  be,  for  it  granted 
all  they  had  asked  and  even  wished  for.  No  w'onder  they  regarded  it  as 
a  priceless  blessing. 

Neither  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  people  were  filled  with  anxiety  and 
distress  when  a  new  king.  James  II.  came  to  the  throne  of  England  and  tried 
to  take  from  them  this  precious  charter.  The  new  king  believed  that  it  would 
be  a  good  thing  to  unite  all  the  New  England  settlements  into  one  strong 
colony  under  an  able  English  governor.  In  this  way  they  would  be  better 
prepared  to  defend  themselves  against  their  Dutch,  French,  and  Indian 
neighbors. 

The  king  did  not  stop  to  inquire  whether  this  change  in  government 
would  please  the  people  of  New  England  or  not.  In  1686  he  sent  Sir  Edmund 
Andros  to  Boston  as  governor,  with  instructions  to  seize  the  charters  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  and  annex  those  colonies  to  Massachusetts 
and  the  rest  of  New  England.  From  Boston  the  new  governor  sent  to 
Governor  Treat  at  Hartford  asking  that  the  charter  of  Connecticut  should 
be  sent  to  him. 

Failing  to  obtain  the  charter  in  this  way.  Governor  Andros  determined 
to  go  to  Hartford  himself  and  demand  it.  Attended  by  several  members  of 
his  council,  two  trumpeters,  and  a  body-guard  of  red-coated  soldiers,  he  left 
Boston.  Traveling  on  horseback,  they  reached  the  Connecticut  river  at  a 
point  opposite  Wethersfield  in  the  afternoon  of  October  31,  1687.  The  ferry 
boat  took  them  to  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  a  troop  of  Hartford 
soldiers  met  them  and  escorted  them  to  Hartford  with  all  the  pomp  and 
dignity  befitting  the  reception  of  a  royal  governor.     At  Hartford,  Governor 


lo  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Treat,  his  assistants,  and  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly,  received 
them  with  courtesy  and  respect.  In  the  evening  the  General  Assembly  was 
in  session  to  hear  what  Governor  Andros  had  to  say.  He  was  escorted  to 
the  governor's  seat  and  the  Assembly  listened  to  his  message.  He  demanded 
that  the  Charter  of  Connecticut  should  be  given  to  him  and  that  it  should 
no  longer  be  a  separate  colony. 

Governor  Treat  made  an  eloquent  and  touching  plea  in  reply.  He 
pictured  the  toil,  the  hardship,  and  the  sufferings  of  the  earlv  settlers.  He 
told  how  they  had  fought  with  tribes  of  murderous  savages,  how  they  had 
turned  the  wilderness  into  a  land  of  happy  homes,  how  they  had  obtained 
their  cherished  charter,  growing  and  prospering  under  its  protection  until 
relinquishing  it  would  be  like  giving  up  life  itself. 

Still  Governor  Andros  insisted  that  the  charter  must  be  surrendered. 
There  it  lay  upon  the  table  around  which  they  were  sitting.  How  could  the 
charter  be  saved  ?  Suddenly  the  candles  were  extinguished.  There  were  no 
matches  in  those  days,  and  it  took  some  time  to  relight  the  candles.  When 
this  was  done  the  charter  was  missing. 

What  had  become  of  it?  Governor  Andros  never  knew,  but  we  know 
that  good  friends  of  Connecticut  carried  it  away  and  hid  it.  Andros  had  no 
right  to  demand  it,  and  the  Connecticut  Assembly  were  determined  that  he 
should  not  obtain  it. 

Captain  Joseph  Wadsworth  was  the  man  who  carried  it  away.  Believing 
that  the  English  governor  would  try  to  find  it.  he  tried  to  think  of  a  safe  place 
in  which  to  hide  it.  He  hid  it  finallv  in  the  hollow  trunk  of  a  large  oak  tree 
standing  near  the  home  of  Samuel  Wyllys. 

Equally  interesting  is  Mr.  Howard's  account  of  Colonial  life  at  that  time: 

For  us  to  go  back  to  the  old  colonial  days  and  visit  the  people  who  then 
lived  in  Connecticut  is,  of  course,  impossible,  yet  we  must  go  back  at  least  in 
imagination  if  we  are  to  understand  the  kind  of  life  they  lived. 

Let  us  suppose  that  we  are  on  a  journey  through  Connecticut  a  few 
years  before  the  time  when  Governor  Andros  tried  to  deprive  the  people  of 
their  charter.  How  strange  it  seems  that  everybody  travels  either  on  horse- 
back or  afoot.  We  see  neither  steam  nor  electric  cars  nor  automobiles,  and 
the  people  do  not  even  own  carriages  or  wagons.  How  poor  the  roads  are ! 
They  are  little  better  than  beaten  paths  through  the  woods  and  fields.  Men 
are  at  work  on  their  farms,  harvesting  their  crops,  and  cutting  down  trees 
in  order  to  clear  new  land  to  plant  next  year.  The  homes  are  mostly  grouped 
in  villages  and  look  very  much  alike. 

In  the  center  of  almost  every  house  is  a  great  stone  chimney  ten  or  twelve 
feet  square  from  the  floor  of  the  cellar  up  to  the  floor  of  the  second  story, 
above  which  it  decreases  in  size  as  it  approaches  the  roof.  In  the  center  of 
the  front  of  the  house  is  a  door  opening  into  a  hall  from  which  a  stairway 
leads  to  the  second  story.  On  the  right  and  left  are  doors  opening  from  the 
hall  into  large  rooms  on  each  side  of  the  chimney.  In  the  rear  of  the  chimney 
is  another  large  room.  One  of  these  rooms  is  the  kitchen,  which  in  most 
cases  is  also  the  living  room  of  the  family.  The  other  large  rooms  are  used 
for  parlors  or  guest  rooms,  and  the  smaller  sleeping  rooms  are  up  stairs. 

We  see  no  stoves,  but  on  three  sides  of  the  chimney  are  huge  fireplaces. 
In  the  kitchen  fireplace  is  an  iron  crane  on  which  hang  two  great  kettles. 
The  oven  is  built  into  one  side  of  the  fireplace.  The  sides  of  the  rooms  are 
plastered,  but  the  joists  and  floor  overhead  are  not  covered,  and  nails  are 
driven  into  the  joists  to  serve  as  hooks  on  which  to  hang  small  articles.    The 


GENERAL  FACTS  ii 

windows  have  small  diamond-shaped  panes  of  glass  set  in  frames  of  lead. 
The  floors  have  no  carpets.  The  furniture  is  plain  and  useful  rather  than 
ornamental.  In  one  room  is  a  spinning  wheel  and  a  hand  loom  on  which  the 
farmer's  wife  and  daughters  spin  the  wool  that  has  been  cut  from  the  backs 
of  the  sheep,  and  weave  it  into  cloth  from  which  to  make  garments  for  the 
family. 

After  the  evening  meal,  eaten  from  pewter  and  wooden  dishes  b)'  the 
light  of  tallow  candles  in  the  great  kitchen,  we  enjoy  listening  to  the  stories 
told  by  farmers  and  their  neighbors  as  they  sit  about  the  great  fireplace, 
some  of  them  cracking  nuts  and  others  making  brooms  and  various  useful 
articles.  We  hear  strange  news  of  what  has  happened  during  the  day.  A 
man  has  been  arrested  for  swearing  and  has  had  to  stand  in  the  pillory  one 
hour  and  then  receive  a  whipping.  Another  man  has  had  to  sit  for  hours  in 
the  stocks  to  punish  him  for  drunkenness. 

Last  night  farmer  Jones  had  five  sheep  killed  by  a  wolf,  and  today  he 
and  his  sons  have  been  hunting  for  the  beast  that  did  the  damage.  Tomorrow 
farmer  Smith  is  to  begin  building  a  barn  and  his  neighbors  are  going  to  the 
"raising"  to  help  erect  the  framework,  for  it  is  their  custom  to  be  friendly 
and  give  their  services  to  a  neighbor  on  such  occasions.  On  the  morrow  we 
go  to  the  "raising,"  and  late  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  framework  of  the 
barn  has  all  been  put  in  place  and  securely  pinned  together,  we  sit  down  at 
the  great  tables  and  enjoy  the  feast  prepared  by  Mrs.  Smith  and  her  daughters. 
All  go  home  early,  for  tomorrow  is  Sunday,  and  in  Connecticut  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  begins  on  Saturday  at  sunset.  Family  worship  is  followed  bv 
religious  instruction  given  to  the  children  and  to  the  servants. 

On  Sunday  morning  a  drum  beats  and  everyone  goes  to  church.  The 
minister  and  the  congregation  all  carry  their  muskets.  Why?  Because  hostile 
Lidians  are  liable  to  attack  them  at  any  minute.  Sentinels  and  guards  watch 
outside  the  door  during  the  sermon,  which  lasts  two  hours.  After  luncheon, 
the  congregation  returns  for  another  long  sermon.  The  tithingman  with  his 
long  rod  tipped  at  one  end  with  brass  and  at  the  other  with  a  rabbit's  foot, 
prevents  anyone  who  is  weary  from  going  to  sleep.  An  old  man  becomes 
drowsy.  He  is  gently  touched  upon  the  head  with  the  brass  end  of  the  rod 
and  awakes  with  a  start.  In  another  pew  a  lady  is  awakened  by  having  her 
face  brushed  by  the  rabbit's  foot.  Though  these  good  people  could  not  help 
becoming  tired  and  sleepy,  they  had  a  high  regard  for  their  pastor's  teaching, 
for  it  was  to  him  that  they  went  for  advice  and  counsel  not  only  for  their 
religious  life  but  for  almost  every  question  that  arose  regarding  what  was 
right  and  proper  in  their  social  life  and  customs. 

The  life  of  these  early  settlers  was  quiet,  healthful,  and  happy.  They 
labored  industriously  and  contentedly  on  their  farms  and  in  the  forests.  All 
that  they  earned  was  their  own  to  use  and  enjoy.  They  made  their  own 
system  of  government  and  laws,  and  enjoyed  the  justice  and  liberty  that  these 
gave  them.  They  believed  in  education  for  themselves  and  for  their  children. 
Their  moral  and  religious  character  made  them  trust  and  respect  one  another 
and  earned  them  the  respect  and  esteem  of  people  in  other  colonies. 

What  sort  of  people  these  early  settlers  were  may  be  judged  by  a  love 
letter  sent  in  1674  by  Rev.  Edward  Taylor,  of  Massachusetts,  to  Miss  Eliza- 
beth Fitch,  daughter  of  Rev.  James  Fitch,  the  first  clergyman  settled  in 
Norwich : 

Wethersfield,  Mass.,  8th  day  of  the  7th  month,  1674. 

My  Dove: — I  send  you  not  my  heart,  for  that  I  hope  is  sent  to  Heaven 


12  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

long  since,  and  unless  it  has  awfuU}'  deceived  me  it  hath  not  taken  up  its 
lodgings  in  any  one's  bosom  on  this  side  the  royal  city  of  the  Great  King; 
but  yet  the  most  of  it  that  is  allowed  to  be  laved  out  upon  any  creature  doth 
safely  and  singlj'  fall  to  your  share.  So  much  my  post  pigeon  presents  you 
with  here  in  these  lines.  Look  not  (I  entreat  you)  on  it  as  one  of  love's  hyper- 
boles. If  I  borrow  the  beams  of  some  sparkling  metaphor  to  illustrate  my 
respects  unto  thyself  by,  for  3'ou  having  made  my  breast  the  cabinet  of  your, 
aftections  as  I  yours  mine,  I  know  not  how  to  offer  a  fitter  comparison  to 
set  out  my  love  by,  than  to  compare  it  unto  a  golden  ball  of  pure  fire  rolling 
up  and  down  my  breast,  from  which  there  flies  now  and  then  a  spark  like  a 
glorious  beam  from  the  body  of  the  flaming  sun.  But  alas !  striving  to  catch 
these  sparks  into  a  love  letter  unto  yourself,  and  to  gild  it  with  them  as  with 
a  sun  beam,  and,  that  by  what  time  they  have  fallen  through  my  pen  upon 
paper,  they  have  lost  their  shine  and  fall  only  like  a  little  smoke  thereon 
instead  of  gilding  them.  Wherefore,  finding  myself  so  much  deceived,  I  am 
ready  to  begrudge  my  instruments,  for  though  my  love  within  my  breast  is 
so  large  that  my  heart  is  not  sufficient  to  contain  it,  yet  they  can  make  it 
no  more  room  to  ride  into,  than  to  squeeze  it  up  betwixt  my  black  ink  and 
white  paper.  But  know  that  it  is  the  coarsest  part  that  is  couchant  there, 
for  the  finest  is  too  fine  to  clothe  in  any  linguist  and  huswifry,  or  to  be 
expressed  in  words,  and  though  this  letter  bears  but  the  coarsest  part  to  you, 
yet  the  purest  is  improved  for  you.  But  now,  my  dear  love,  lest  my  letter 
should  be  judged  the  lavish  language  of  a  lover's  pen,  I  shall  endeavor  to  show 
that  conjugal  love  ought  to  exceed  all  other  love,  ist,  appears  from  that 
which  it  represents,  viz:  The  respect  there  is  betwixt  Christ  and  his  church, 
Eph.  5th,  25th,  although  it  differs  from  that  in  kind;  for  that  is  spiritual  and 
this  human,  and  in  degree,  that  is  boundless  and  transcendent,  this  limited 
and  subordinate;  yet  it  holds  out  that  this  should  be  cordial  and  with  respect 
to  all  other  transcendent.  2d,  Because  conjugal  love  is  the  ground  of  conjugal 
union,  or  conjugal  sharing  the  effects  of  this  love,  is  also  a  ground  of  this 
union.  3d,  From  those  Christian  duties  which  are  incumbent  on  persons  in 
this  state  as  not  only  a  serving  God  together,  a  praying  together,  a  joining 
in  the  ruling  and  instructing  their  family  together,  which  could  not  be  carried 
on  as  it  should  be  without  a  great  degree  of  true  love,  and  also  a  mutual 
giving  each  other  to  each  other,  a  mutual  succoring  each  other  in  all  states, 
ails,  grievances ;  and  how  can  this  be  when  there  is  not  a  love  exceeding  all 
other  love  to  any  creature?  And  hereby  if  persons  in  this  state  have  not 
love  exceeding  all  love,  it's  with  them  for  the  most  part  as  with  the  strings 
of  an  instrument  not  tuned  up,  when  struck  upon  makes  but  a  jarring,  harsh 
sound.  But  when  we  get  the  wires  of  an  instrument  equally  drawn  up,  and 
righth'  struck  upon,  sotmd  together,  make  sweet  music  whose  harmony  doth 
enravish  the  ear:  so  when  the  golden  strings  of  true  affection  are  struck  up 
into  a  right  conjugal  love,  thus  sweetly  doth  this  state  then  harmonize  to 
the  comfort  of  each  other  and  to  the  glorv  of  God  when  sanctified.  But  yet, 
the  conjugal  love  most  exceed  all  other,  yet  it  must  be  kept  within  bounds, 
for  it  must  be  subordinate  to  God's  glory ;  the  which  that  mine  may  be  so,  it 
having  got  you  in  its  heart,  doth  offer  my  heart  with  you  in  it  as  a  more  rich 
sacrifice  into  Gcd  through  Christ,  and  so  it  subscribeth  me. 

Your  true  love  till  death, 

Edw.\rd  T.wlor. 

This  for  my  friend  and  only  beloved.  Miss  Elizabeth  Fitch, 
at  her  father's  house  in  Norwich. 


GENERAL  FACTS  13 

No  more  interesting  description  of  Colonial  life  at  this  time  can  be  found 
than  "The  Journal  of  Madame  Sarah  Knight,"  the  record  of  a  journey  from 
Boston  to  New  York  in  1704.  Inasmuch  as  Madame  Knight  was  a  resident 
of  Norwich  and  New  London  for  many  years,  we  print  the  journal  entire: 

Monday,  Octb'r.  }e  second,  1704.  About  three  o'clock  afternoon,  I  begun 
my  Journey  from  Boston  to  New  Haven ;  being  about  two  Hundred  Mile.  My 
Kinsman,  Capt.  Robert  Luist,  waited  on  me  as  farr  as  Dedham,  where  I  was 
to  meet  ye  Western  |.ost. 

I  visittcd  the  Reverd.  Mr.  Belcher,  ye  Minister  of  ye  town,  and  tarried 
there  till  evening,  in  hopes  ye  post  would  come  along.  But  he  not  coming, 
I  resolved  to  go  to  Billingses  where  he  used  to  lodg,  being  12  miles  further. 
But  being  ignorant  of  the  way,  Madm  Billings,  seeing  no  persuasions  of  her 
good  spouses  or  hers  could  prevail  with  me  to  Lodg  there  that  night,  Very 
kindly  went  wyth  me  to  ye  Tavern,  where  I  hoped  to  get  my  guide.  And 
desired  the  Hostess  to  inquire  of  her  guests  whether  any  of  them  would 
go  with  mee.  But  they  being  tyed  by  the  Lipps  to  a  pewter  engine,  scarcely 
allowed  themselves  time  to  say  what  clownish — (Here  half  a  page  of  the 
MS.  is  gone.) — Pieces  of  eight,  I  told  her  no,  I  would  not  be  accessary  to 
such  extortion. 

Then  John  shan't  go,  sais  shee.  No,  indeed,  shan't  hee ;  And  held  forth 
at  that  rate  a  long  time,  that  I  began  to  fear  I  was  got  among  the  Quaking 
tribe,  beleeving  not  a  Limbertong'd  sister  among  them  could  out  do  Madm. 
Hostcs.  Upon  this,  to  my  no  small  surprise,  son  John  arrose,  and  gravely 
demanded  what  I  would  give  him  to  go  with  me?  Give  you,  sais  I,  are  you 
John?  Yes,  says  he,  for  want  of  a  Better;  And  behold!  this  John  look't  as 
old  as  my  Host,  and  perhaps  had  bin  a  man  in  the  last  Century.  Well,  Mr. 
John,  sais  I,  make  your  demands. 

Why,  half  a  pss.  of  eight  and  a  dram,  sais  John.  I  agreed,  and  gave  him 
a  Dram  (now)  in  hand  to  bind  the  bargain.  My  hostess  catechis'd  John  for 
going  so  cheap,  saying  his  poor  wife  would  break  her  heart — (Here  another 
half  page  of  the  MS.  is  gone). — His  shade  on  his  Hors  resembled  a  Globe 
on  a  Gate  post.  His  habit,  Hors  and  furniture,  its  looks  and  goings  Licom- 
parably  answered  the  rest. 

Thus  Jogging  on  with  an  easy  pace,  my  Guide  telling  mee  it  was 
dangero's  to  Ride  hard  in  the  Night,  (which  his  horse  had  the  sence  to  avoid) 
Hee  entertained  me  with  the  Adventurs  he  had  passed  by  late  Rideing,  and 
eminent  Dangers  he  had  escaped,  so  that,  Rembring  the  Hero's  in  Parismus 
and  the  Knight  of  the  Oracle,  I  did'nt  know  but  I  had  mett  wth  a  Prince 
disguis'd.  When  we  had  Ridd  about  an  how'r,  wee  come  into  a  thick  swamp, 
wch.  by  Reason  of  a  great  fogg,  very  much  startled  mee,  it  being  now  very 
Dark.  But  nothing  dismay'd  John :  Hee  had  encountered  a  thousand  and  a 
thousand  such  Swamps,  having  a  L'^niversal  Knowledge  in  the  woods ;  and 
readily  Answered  all  my  inquiries  wch.  were  not  a  few. 

In  about  an  how'r,  or  something  more,  after  we  left  the  Swamp,  we  come 
to  Billinges,  where  I  was  to  Lodg.  My  Guide  dismounted  and  very  Com- 
plasantly  help't  me  down  and  shewd  the  door,  signing  to  me  wth  his  hand 
to  Go  in;  wch  I  Gladly  did — But  had  not  gone  many  steps  into  the  Room, 
ere  I  was  Interogated  by  a  young  Lady  I  understood  afterwards  was  the 
Eldest  daughter  of  the  family,  with  these,  or  words  to  this  purpose,  (viz.) 
Law  for  mee — what  in  the  world  brings  You  here  at  this  time  a  night?— I 
never  see  a  woman  on  the  Rode  so  DreadfuU  late,  in  all  the  days  of  my 
versall  life.    Who  are  You?    Where  are  You  going?     I'm  scar'd  out  of  my 


14  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

witts — with  much  now  of  the  same  Kind.  I  stood  aghast,  Prepareing  to  reply, 
when  in  comes  my  Guide — to  him  Madam  turn'd,  Roreing  out :  Lawful!  heart, 
John,  is  it  You? — how  do  do!  Where  in  the  world  are  you  going  with  this 
woman?  Who  is  she?  John  made  no  Ansr.  but  sat  down  in  the  corner, 
fumbled  out  his  black  Junk,  and  saluted  that  instead  of  Debb ;  she  then 
turned  agen  to  mee  and  fell  anew  into  her  silly  questions,  without  askmg 
me  to  sitt  down. 

I  told  her  she  treated  me  very  Rudel3^  and  I  did  not  think  it  my  duty 
to  answer  her  unmannerly  Questions.  But  to  get  ridd  of  them,  I  told  her 
I  come  there  to  have  the  post's  company  with  me  to-morrow  on  my  Journey, 
&c.  Miss  star'd  awhile,  drew  a  chair,  bid  me  sitt.  And  then  run  up  stairs 
and  putts  on  two  or  three  Rings,  (or  else  I  had  not  seen  them  before,)  and 
returning,  sett  herself  just  before  me,  showing  the  way  to  Reding,  that  I 
might  see  her  Ornaments,  perhaps  to  gain  the  more  respect.  But  her 
Granam's  new  Rung  sow,  had  it  appeared,  would  affected  me  as  much.  I 
paid  honest  John  wth  money  and  dram  according  to  contract,  and  Dismist 
him,  and  pray'd  Miss  to  shew  me  where  I  must  Lodg.  Shee  conducted  me 
to  a  parlour  in  a  little  back  Lento,  w-ch  was  almost  fill'd  wth  the  bedstead, 
wch  was  so  high  that  I  was  forced  to  climb  on  a  chair  to  gitt  up  to  ye  wretched 
bed  that  lay  on  it ;  on  wch  having  Strecht  my  tired  Limbs,  and  lay'd  my 
head  on  a  Sad-colourd  pillow,  I  began  to  think  on  the  transactions  of  ye 
past  day. 

Tuesday,  October  ye  third,  about  8  in  the  morning,  I  with  the  Post 
proceeded  forward  without  observing  any  thing  remarkable ;  And  about  two, 
afternoon,  Arrived  at  the  Post's  second  stage,  where  the  western  Post  mett 
him  and  exchanged  Letters.  Here,  having  called  for  something  to  eat,  ye 
woman  bro't  in  a  Twisted  thing  like  a  cable,  but  something  whiter ;  and 
laying  it  on  the  bord,  tugg'd  for  life  to  bring  it  into  a  capacity  to  spread;  wch 
having  wth  great  pains  accomplished,  shee  serv'd  in  a  dish  of  Pork  and 
Cabbage,  I  suppose  the  remains  of  Dinner.  The  sause  was  of  a  deep  Purple, 
wch  I  tho't  was  boil'd  in  her  dye  Kettle ;  the  bread  was  Indian,  and  every 
thing  on  the  Table  service  Agreeable  to  these.  L  being  hungry,  gott  a  little 
down;  but  my  stomach  was  soon  cloy'd  and  what  cabbage  I  swallowed  serv'd 
me  for  a  Cudd  the  whole  day  after. 

Having  here  discharged  the  Ordnary  for  self  and  Guide,  (as  I  understood 
was  the  custom.)  About  Three  afternoon  went  on  with  my  Third  Guide,  who 
Rode  very  hard  ;  and  having  crossed  Providence  Ferry,  we  come  to  a  River 
wch  they  Generally  Ride  thro'.  But  I  dare  not  venture ;  so  the  Post  got  a 
Ladd  and  Cannoo  to  carry  me  to  tother  side,  and  hee  rode  thro'  and  Led  my 
hors.  The  Cannoo  was  very  small  and  shallow,  so  that  when  we  were  in  she 
seem'd  redy  to  take  in  water,  which  greatly  terrified  mee,  and  caused  me  to 
be  very  circurispect,  sitting  with  my  hands  fast  on  each  side,  my  eyes  stedy, 
not  daring  so  much  as  to  lodg  my  tongue  a  hair's  breadth  more  on  one  side 
of  my  mouth  then  totjier,  nor  so  much  as  think  on  Lott"s  wife,  for  a  wry 
thought  would  have  overestt  our  wherey :  But  was  soon  put  out  of  this  pain, 
by  feeling  the  Cannoo  on  shore,  wch  T  as  soon  almost  saluted  with  my  feet ; 
and  Rewarding  my  sculler,  again  mounted  and  made  the  best  of  our  way 
forwards.  The  Rode  here  was  very  even  and  ye  day  pleasant,  it  being  now 
near  Sunsett.  But  the  Post  told  mee  we  had  neer  14  miles  to  Ride  to  the 
next  Stage,  (where  we  were  to  Lodg.)  I  askt  him  of  the  rest  of  the  Rode, 
forseeing  wee  must  travail  in  the  night.  Hee  told  mee  there  was  a  bad  River 
we  were  to  Ride  thro',  wch  was  so  very  firce  a  hors  could  sometimes  hardly 
stem  it:  But  it  was  but  narrow,  and  wee  should  soon  be  over.  I  cannot 
express  The  concern  of  mind  this  relation  sett  me  in:  no  thought  but  those 


GENERAL  FACTS  15 

of  the  dano;'ros  River  could  entertain  m\  Imagination,  and  they  were  ai 
formidable  as  varios,  still  Tormenting  me  with  blackest  Ideas  of  my  Ap- 
proaching fate — Sometimes  seing  my  self  drowning,  otherwhiles  drowned, 
and  at  the  best  like  a  holy  Sister  just  come  out  of  a  Spiritual  Bath  ii'  drip- 
ping  Garments. 

Now  was  the  Glorious  Luminary,  wth  his  swift  Coursers  arrived  at  his 
Stage,  leaving  poor  me  wth  the  rest  of  this  part  of  the  lower  world  in  dark- 
ness, with  which  wee  were  soon  Surrounded.  The  only  Glimmering  we  now 
had  was  from  the  spangled  Skies,  Whose  Imperfect  Reflections  rendered 
every  Object  formidable.  Each  lifeless  Trunk,  with  its  shatter'd  Limbs, 
appear'd  an  Armed  Enymie ;  and  every  little  stump  like  a  Ravenous  dc- 
vourer.  Nor  could  I  so  much  as  discern  my  Guide,  w-hen  at  any  distance, 
which  added  to  the  terror. 

Thus,  absolutelj'  lost  in  Thought,  and  dying  with  the  very  thoughts  of 
drowning,  I  come  up  wth  the  post,  who  I  did  not  see  till  even  with  his  Hors: 
he  told  mee  he  stopt  for  mee ;  and  wee  Rode  on  Very  <ieliberately  a  few 
paces,  when  we  entered  a  Thickett  of  Trees  and  Shrubbs,  and  I  perceived  by 
the  Hors's  going,  we  were  on  the  descent  of  a  Hill,  wch,  as  wee  come  neerer 
the  bottom,  'twas  totaly  dark  wth  the  Trees  that  surrounded  it.  But  I  knew 
by  the  Going  of  the  Hors  wee  had  entred  the  water,  wch  my  Guide  told  mee 
was  the  hazardos  River  he  had  told  me  off;  and  hee.  Riding  up  close  to  my 
Side,  Bid  me  not  fear — we  should  be  over  Imediath-.  I  now  ralyed  all  the 
Courage  I  was  mistriss  of.  Knowing  that  I  must  either  Venture  my  fate  of 
drowning,  or  be  left  like  ye  Children  in  the  wood.  So,  as  the  Post  bid  me, 
I  gave  Reins  to  my  Nagg;  and  sitting  as  Stedy  as  Just  before  in  the  Cannoo, 
in  a  few  minutes  got  safe  to  the  other  side,  which  hee  told  mee  was  the 
Narragansett  country. 

Here  We  found  great  difficulty  in  Travailing,  the  way  being  very  narrow, 
and  on  each  side  the  Trees  and  bushes  gave  us  very  unpleasant  welcomes 
with  their  Branches  and  bow's,  wch  wee  could  not  avoid,  it  being  so  exceed- 
ing dark.  My  Guide,  as  before  so  now,  putt  on  harder  than  I,  wth  mv  weary 
bones,  could  follow ;  so  left  mee  and  the  way  behind  him.  Now  Returned 
my  distressed  apprehensions  of  the  place  where  I  was :  the  dolesome  woods, 
my  Company  next  to  none.  Going  I  knew  not  whither,  and  encompassed  wth 
Terrifying  darkness ;  The  least  of  which  was  enough  to  startle  a  more  j\Ias- 
culine  courage.  Added  to  which  the  Reflections,  as  in  the  afternoon  of  ye 
day  that  my  Call  was  very  Questionable,  wch  till  then  I  had  not  so  Prudently 
as  I  ought  considered.  Now,  coming  to  ye  foot  of  a  hill,  I  found  great  diffi- 
culty in  ascending;  But  being  got  to  the  Top,  was  there  amply  recompcnced 
with  the  friendly  Appearance  of  the  Kind  Conductress  of  the  night,  Just  then 
Advancing  above  the  Horisontall  Line.  The  Raptures  wch  the  Sight  of  that 
fair  Planett  produced  in  mee,  caus'd  mee,  for  the  Moment  to  forgett  mv 
present  wearyness  and  past  toils,  and  Inspir'd  me  for  most  of  the  remaining 
way  with  very  diverting  tho'ts,  some  of  which,  with  the  other  Occurances  of 
the  day,  I  reserved  to  note  down  when  I  should  come  to  my  Stage.  My 
tho'ts  on  the  sight  of  the  moon  were  to  this  purpose: 

Fair  C\Tithia.  all  the  Homage  that  I  may 

Unto  a  Creature,  unto  thee  I  pay; 

In  Lonesome  woods  to  meet  so  kind  a  guide. 

To  Mee's  more  worth  than  all  the  world  beside. 

Some  Toy  I  felt  just  now.  when  safe  got  o're 

Yon  Surly  River  to  this  Rugged  shore. 

Deeming  Rough  welcomes  from  these  clownish  Trees, 

Better  than  Lodgings  wth  Nereidees. 

Yet  swelling  fears  surprise ;  all  dark  appears — 


i6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Nothing  but  Light  can  disipate  those  fears. 
My  fainting  vitals  can't  lend  strength  to  say, 
But  softly  whisper,  O  I  wish  'twere  day. 
The  murmur  hardly  warm'd  the  Ambient  air, 
E're  thy  Bright  Aspect  rescues  from  dispair: 
Makes  the  old  Hagg  her  sable  mantle  loose. 
And  a  Bright  Joy  do's  through  my  Soul  diffuse. 
The  Boistero's  Trees  now  Lend  a  Passage  Free, 
And  pleasant  prospects  thou  giv'st  light  to  see. 

From  hence  wee  kept  on,  with  more  ease  yn  before;  the  way  being 
smooth  and  even,  the  night  warm  and  serene,  and  the  Tall  and  thick  Trees 
at  a  distance,  especially  wn  the  moon  glar'd  light  through  the  branches,  fiU'd 
my  Imagination  wth  the  pleasant  delusion  of  a  Sumteous  citty,  fiU'd  wth 
famous  Buildings  and  churches,  wth  their  spiring  steeples,  Balconies,  Gal- 
leries, and  I  know  not  what:  Grandeurs  wch  I  had  heard  of,  and  wch  the 
stories  of  foreign  countries  had  given  me  the  Idea  of. 

Here  stood  a  Lofty  church — there  is  a  steeple. 
And  there  the  Grand  Parade — O  see  the  people ! 
That  Famouse  Castle  there,  were  I  but  nigh. 
To  see  the  mote  and  Bridg  and  walls  so  high — 
They'r  very  fine !  sais  my  deluded  eye. 

Being  thus  agreeably  entertain'd  without  a  thou't  of  any  thing  but 
thoughts  themselves,  I  on  a  suden  was  Rous'd  from  these  pleasing  Imagina- 
tions, by  the  Post's  sounding  his  horn,  which  assured  mee  he  was  arrived  at 
the  Stage,  where  we  were  to  Lodg:  and  that  musick  was  then  most  musickall 
and  agreeable  to  mee. 

Being  come  to  mr.  Havens',  I  was  very  civilly  Received,  and  courteously 
entertained,  in  a  clean  comfortable  House;  and  the  Good  woman  was  very 
active  in  helping  off  my  Riding  clothes,  and  then  ask't  what  I  would  eat.  I 
told  her  I  had  some  Chocolett,  if  shee  would  prepare  it;  which  with  the  help 
of  some  Milk,  and  a  little  clean  brass  Kettle,  she  soon  effected  to  my  satis- 
faction. I  then  betook  me  to  my  Apartment,  wch  was  a  little  Room  parted 
from  the  Kitchen  by  a  single  bord  partition  :  where,  after  I  had  noted  the 
Occurances  of  the  past  day,  I  went  to  bed,  which,  tho'  pretty  hard,  Yet  neet 
and  handsome.  But  I  could  get  no  sleep,  because  of  the  Clamor  of  some  of 
the  Town  tope-ers  in  next  Room,  Who  were  entred  into  a  strong  debate 
concernign  ye  Signifj'cation  of  the  name  of  their  Country,  (viz.)  Narra- 
ganset.  One  said  it  was  named  so  by  ye  Indians,  because  there  grew  a 
Brier  there,  of  a  prodigious  Highth  and  bigness,  the  like  hardly  ever  known, 
called  by  the  Indians  Narragansett :  Atid  quotes  an  Indian  of  so  Barberous 
a  name  for  his  Author,  that  I  could  not  write  it.  His  Antagonist  Replyed 
no — It  was  from  a  Spring  it  had  its  name,  wch  hee  well  knew  where  it  was, 
which  was  extreem  cold  in  summer,  and  as  Hott  as  could  be  imagined  in  the 
winter,  which  was  much  resorted  too  by  the  natives,  and  by  them  called 
Narragansett,  (Hot  and  Cold,)  and  that  was  the  original!  of  their  places  name 
— with  a  thousand  Impertinances  not  worth  notice,  wch  He  utter'd  with  such 
a  Roreing  voice  and  Thundering  blows  with  the  fist  of  wickedness  on  the 
Table,  that  it  pierced  my  very  head.  I  fretted,  and  wish't  'um  tongue 
tyed ;  but  wth  as  little  succes  as  a  friend  of  mine  once,  who  was  (as  she  said) 
kept  a  whole  night  awake,  on  a  Jorny.  by  a  country  Left,  and  a  Sergent. 
Insigne  and  a  Deacon,  contriving  how  to  bring  a  triangle  into  a  Square.  They 
kept  calling  for  tother  Gill,  wch  while  they  were  swallowing,  was  some  Inter- 
mission ;  But  presently,  like  Oyle  to  fire,  encreased  the  flame.    It  set  my  Candle 


GENERAL  FACTS  17 

on  a  Chest  by  the  bed  side,  and  setting  up,  fell  to  my  old  way  of  composing 
my  Resentments,  in  the  following  manner: 

I  ask  thy  Aid,  O  Potent  Rum! 

To  Charm  these  wrangling  Topers  Dum. 

Thou  hast  their  Giddy  Brains  possest — 

The  man  confounded  wth  the  Beast — 

And  I,  poor  I,  can  get  no  rest. 

Intoxicate  them  with  thy  fumes: 

O  still  their  Tongues  till  morning  comes! 

And  I  know  not  but  my  wishes  took  effect;  for  the  dispute  soon  ended  wth 
'tother  Dram  ;  and  so  Good  night ! 

Wednesday,  Octob'r  4th.  About  four  in  the  morning,  we  set  out  for 
Kingston  (for  so  was  the  Town  called)  with  a  french  Docter  in  our  company. 
Hee  and  ye  Post  put  on  very  furiously,  so  that  I  could  not  keep  up  with 
them,  only  as  now  and  then  they'd  stop  till  they  see  me.  This  Rode  was 
poorly  furnished  wth  accommodations  for  Travellers,  so  that  we  were  forced 
to  ride  22  miles  by  the  post's  account,  but  neerer  thirty  by  mine,  before  wee 
could  bait  so  much  as  our  Horses,  wch  I  exceedingly  complained  of.  But  the 
post  encourag'd  mee,  by  saying  wee  should  be  well  accommodated  anon  at 
mr.  Devills,  a  few  miles  further.  But  I  questioned  whether  we  ought  to  go 
to  the  Devil  to  be  helpt  out  of  affliction.  However,  like  the  rest  of  Deluded 
souls  that  post  to  ye  Infernal  denn.  Wee  made  all  posible  speed  to  this  Devil's 
Habitation;  where  alliting,  in  full  assurance  of  good  accommodation,  wee 
were  going  in.  But  meeting  his  two  daughters,  as  I  suposed  twins,  they  so 
neerly  resembled  each  other,  both  in  features  and  habit,  and  look't  as  old  as 
the  Divel  himselfe,  and  quite  as  Ugly,  We  desired  entertainm't,  but  could 
hardly  get  a  word  out  of  'um,  till  with  our  Importunity,  telling  them  our 
necesity,  &c.  they  call'd  the  old  Sophister,  who  was  as  sparing  of  his  words 
as  his  daughters  had  bin,  and  no,  or  none,  was  the  reply's  hee  made  us  to  our 
demands.  Hee  differed  only  in  this  from  the  old  fellow  in  to'ther  Country: 
hee  let  us  depart.  However,  I  thought  it  proper  to  warn  poor  Travailers  to 
endeavour  to  Avoid  falling  into  circumstances  like  ours,  wch  at  our  next  Stage 
I  sat  down  and  did  as  followeth : 

May  all  that  dread  the  cruel  feind  of  night 
Keep  on.  and  not  at  this  curs't  Mansion  light. 
'Tiss  Hell:  'tis  Hell!  and  Devills  here  do  dwell: 
Here  dwells  the  Devill — surely  this's  Hell. 
Nothing  but  Wants :  a  drop  to  cool  yo'r  Tongue 
Cant  be  procur'd  these  cruel  Feinds  among. 
Plenty  of  horrid  Grins  and  looks  sevear, 
Hunger  and  thirst,  But  pitty's  banish'd  here — 
The  Right  hand  keep,  if  Hell  on  Earth  you  fear! 

Thus  leaving  this  habitation  of  cruelty,  we  went  forward ;  and  arriving  at  an 
Ordinary  about  two  mile  further,  found  tollerable  accommodation.  But  our 
Hostes,  being  a  pretty  full  mouth'd  old  creature,  entertain'd  our  fellow  trav- 
ailer,  ye  french  Docter,  wth  Inumirable  complaints  of  her  bodily  infirmities; 
and  whisperd  to  him  so  lou'd,  that  all  ye  House  had  as  full  a  hearing  as  hee; 
which  was  very  divirting  to  he  company,  (of  which  there  was  a  great  many,) 
as  one  might  see  by  their  sneering.  But  poor  weary  I  slipt  out  to  enter  my 
mind  in  my  Jornal,  and  left  my  Great  Landly  with  her  Talkative  Guests  to 
themselves. 

From  hence  we  proceeded  (about  ten  forenoon)  through  the  Narragan- 
sett  country,  pretty  Leisurely ;  and  about  one  afternoon  come  to  Paukataug 
River,  wch  was  about  two  hundred  paces  over,  and  now  very  high,  and  no 
N.L,.— :-2 


i8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

way  over  to  to'ther  side  but  this.  I  darid  not  venture  to  Ride  thro,  my  courage 
at  best  in  such  cases  but  small,  And  now  at  the  Lowest  Ebb,  by  reason  of 
my  weary,  very  wear}-,  hungry,  and  uneasy  Circumstances.  So  takeing  leave 
of  my  company,  tho'  wth  no  little  Reluctance,  that  I  could  not  proceed  wth 
them  on  my  Jorny,  Stop  at  a  little  cottage  Just  by  the  River,  to  wait  the 
Waters  falling,  wch  the  old  man  that  lived  there  said  would  be  in  a  little 
time,  and  he  would  conduct  me  safe  over.  This  little  Hutt  was  one  of  the 
wretchedest  I  ever  saw  a  habitation  for  human  creatures.  It  was  supported 
with  shores  enclosed  with  Clapbords,  laid  on  Lengthways,  and  so  much 
asunded,  that  the  Light  come  throu'  every  where ;  the  doore  tyed  on  wth  a 
cord  in  ye  place  of  hinges;  The  floor  the  bear  earth;  no  windows  but  such 
as  the  thin  covering  afforded,  nor  any  furniture  but  a  Bedd  wth  a  glass  Bottle 
hanging  at  ye  head  on't ;  an  earthan  cupp,  a  small  pewter  Bason,  A  Bord  wth 
sticks  to  stand  on,  instead  of  a  table,  and  a  block  or  two  in  ye  corner  instead 
of  chairs.  The  family  were  the  old  man,  his  wife  and  two  Children ;  all  and 
every  part  being  the  picture  of  poverty.  Notwithstanding  both  the  Hutt  and 
its  Inhabance  were  very  clean  and  tydee :  to  the  crossing  the  Old  Proverb, 
that  bare  walls  make  giddy  hows-wifes.  I  Blest  myselfe  that  I  was  not  one 
of  this  misserable  crew ;  and  the  Impressions  their  wretchedness  formed  in 
me  cauesd  mee  on  ye  very  Spott  to  say: 

Tho'  111  at  ease,  A  stranger  and  alone. 
All  my  fatigu's  shall  not  extort  a  grone. 
These  Indigents  have  hunger  wth  their  ease; 
Their  best  is  wars  behalfe  then  my  disease. 
Their  Misirable  hutt  wch  Heat  and  Cold 
Alternately  without  Repulse  do  hold; 
Their  Lodgings  thyn  and  hard,  their  Indian  fare. 
The  mean  Apparel  which  the  wretches  wear. 
And  their  ten  thousand  ills  wch  can't  be  told, 
Makes  nature  er'e  'tis  midle  age  look  old. 
When  I  reflect,  my  late  fatigues  do  seem 
Only  a  notion  or  forgotten  Dreem. 

I  had  scarce  done  thinking,  when  an  Indian-like  Animal  come  to  the  door, 
on  a  creature  ver\'  much  like  himsclfe,  in  mien  and  features,  as  well  as  Ragged 
cloathing;  and  having  'litt,  makes  an  Awkerd  Scratch  wth  his  Indian  shoo, 
and  a  Nodd,  sitts  on  ye  block,  fumbles  out  his  black  Junk,  dipps  it  in  ye 
Ashes,  and  presents  it  piping  hott  to  his  muscheeto's,  and  fell  to  sucking 
like  a  calf,  without  speaking,  for  near  a  quarter  of  an  hower.  At  length  the 
old  man  said  how  do's  Sarah  do?  who  I  understood  was  the  wretches  wife, 
and  Daughter  to  ye  old  man :  he  Replyed,- — as  well  as  can  be  expected,  &c. 
So  I  remembred  the  old  say,  and  suposed  I  knew  Sarah's  case.  Butt  hee 
being,  as  I  understood,  going  over  the  River,  as  ugly  as  hee  was,  I  was  glad 
to  ask  him  to  show  me  ye  way  to  Saxtons,  at  Stoningtown ;  wch  he  promising, 
I  ventur'd  over  wth  the  old  mans  assistance ;  who  having  rewarded  to  content, 
with  my  Tattertailed  guide,  I  Ridd  on  very  slowly  thro'  Stoningtown,  where 
the  Rode  was  very  stony  and  uneven.  I  asked  the  fellow,  as  we  went,  divers 
questions  of  the  place  and  way,  &c.  I  being  arrived  at  my  country  Saxtons, 
at  Stonington.  was  very  well  accommodated  both  as  to  victuals  and  Lodging, 
the  only  Good  of  both  I  had  found  since  my  setting  out.  Here  I  heard  there 
was  an  old  man  and  his  Daughter  to  come  that  way,  bound  to  N.  London ; 
and  being  now  destitute  of  a  Guide,  gladly  waited  for  them,  being  in  so  good 
a  harbour,  and  accordingly,  Thirsday,  Octobr  ye  5th,  about  3  in  the  after- 
noon, I  sat  forward  with  neighbor  Polly  and  Jemima,  a  Girl  about  18  Years 
old,  who  hee  said  he  had  been  to  fetch  out  of  the  Narragansetts,  and  said 
they  had  Rode  thirty  miles  that  day,  on  a  sory  lean  jade,  wth  only  a  Bagg 


GENERAL  FACTS  19 

under  her  for  a  pillion,  which  the  poor  Girl  often  complain'd  was  very  uneasy. 

Wee  made  Good  speed  along,  wch  made  poor  Jemima  make  many  a 
sow'r  face,  the  mare  being  a  very  hard  trotter;  and  after  many  a  hearty  and 
bitter  Oh,  she  at  length  Low'd  out:  Lawful  Heart  father!  this  bare  mare 
hurts  mee  Dingeely.  I'me  direfull  sore  I  vow ;  with  many  words  to  that  pur- 
pose ;  poor  Child  sais  Gaffer — she  us't  to  serve  your  mother  so.  I  don't  care 
how  mother  us't  to  do,  quoth  Jemima,  in  a  pasionate  tone.  At  which  the  old 
man  Laught,  and  kik't  his  Jade  o'  the  side,  which  made  her  Jolt  ten  times 
harder. 

About  seven  that  Evening,  we  come  to  New  London  Ferry :  here,  by 
reason  of  a  very  high  wind,  we  mett  with  great  difficulty  in  getting  over — 
the  Boat  tos't  exceedingly,  and  our  Horses  capper'd  at  a  very  surprizing 
Rate,  and  set  us  all  in  a  fright;  especially  poor  Jemima,  who  desired  her 
father  to  say  'so  jack'  to  the  Jade,  to  make  her  stand.  But  the  careless  parent, 
taking  no  notice  of  her  repeated  desires.  She  Rored  out  in  a  Passionate 
manner:  Pray  suth  father,  Are  you  deaf?  Say  'so  Jack'  to  the  Jade,  I  tell 
you.  The  Dutiful  Parent  obey's ;  saying  'so  Jack,'  'so  Jack,'  as  gravely  as  if 
hee'd  bin  to  saying  Catechise  after  Young  Miss,  who  with  her  fright  look't 
of  all  couiers  in  ye  Rain  Bow. 

Being  safely  arrived  at  the  house  of  Mrs.  Prentices  in  N.  London,  I 
treated  neighbour  Polly  and  daughter  for  their  divirting  company,  and  bid 
them  farewell ;  and  between  nine  and  ten  at  night  waited  on  the  Revd  Mr. 
Gurdon  Saltonstall,  minister  of  the  town,  who  kindly  Invited  me  to  Stay 
that  night  at  his  house,  where  I  was  very  handsomely  and  plentifully  treated 
and  Lodg'd ;  and  made  good  the  Great  Character  I  had  before  heard  concern- 
ing him ;  viz.  that  hee  was  the  most  affable,  courteous,  Genero's  and  best 
of  men. 

Friday,  October  6th.  I  got  up  very  early,  in  Order  to  hire  somebody  to 
go  with  mee  to  New  Haven,  being  in  Great  perplexity  at  the  thoughts  of 
proceeding  alone;  which  my  most  hospitable  entertainer  observing,  himself 
went,  and  soon  return'd  wth  a  young  Gentleman  of  the  town,  who  he  could 
confide  in  to  Go  with  mee ;  and  about  eight  this  morning,  wth  Mr.  Joshua 
Wheeler  my  new  Guide,  takeing  leave  of  this  worthy  Gentleman,  Wee  ad- 
vanced on  towards  Seabrook.  The  Rodes  all  along  this  way  are  very  bad, 
Incumbered  wth  Rocks  and  mountainous  passages,  wch  were  very  disagree- 
able to  my  tired  carcass;  but  we  went  on  with  a  moderate  pace  wch  made 
ye  Journy  more  pleasent.  But  after  about  eight  miles  Rideing,  in  going  over 
a  Bridge  under  wch  the  River  Run  very  swift,  my  hors  stumbled,  and  very 
narrowly  'scaped  falling  over  into  the  water ;  wch  extreemly  frightened  mee. 
But  through  God's  Goodness  I  met  with  no  harm,  and  mounting  agen,  in 
about  half  a  miles  Rideing,  come  to  an  ordinary,  were  w-ell  entertained  by  a 
woman  of  about  seventy  and  vantage,  but  of  as  Sound  Intellectuals  as  one  of 
seventeen.  Shee  entertain'd  Mr.  Wheeler  wth  some  passages  of  a  Wedding 
awhile  ago  at  a  place  hard  by,  the  Brides-Groom  being  about  her  Age  or 
something  above.  Saying  his  Children  was  dreadfully  against  their  fathers 
marrying,  wch  shee  condemned  them  extreemly  for. 

From  hence  wee  went  pretty  briskly  forward,  and  arriv'd  at  Saybrook 
ferry  about  two  of  the  Clock  afternoon ;  and  crossing  it,  wee  call'd  at  an  Inn 
to  Bait,  (foreseeing  we  should  not  have  such  another  Opportunity  till  we 
come  to  Killingsworth.)  Landlady  comes  in,  with  her  hair  about  her  ears, 
and  hands  at  full  pav  scratching.  Shee  told  us  shee  had  some  mutton  wch 
shee  would  broil,  wch  I  was  glad  to  hear;  But  I  supose  forgot  to  wash  her 
scratchers ;  in  a  little  tirne  shee  brot  it  in ;  but  it  being  pickeld.  and  my  Guide 
said  it  smelt  strong  of  head  saiise,  we  left  it,  and  pd  sixpence  a  piece  for  our 


20  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Dinners,  wch  was  only  smell.  So  wee  putt  forward  with  al  speed,  and  about 
seven  at  night  come  to  Killingsworth,  and  were  tollerably  well  with  Travillers 
fare,  and  Lodgd  there  that  night. 

Saturday,  Oct.  7th,  we  sett  out  early  in  the  Morning,  and  being  something 
unaquainted  wth  the  way,  having  ask't  it  of  some  wee  mett,  they  told  us  wee 
must  Ride  a  mile  or  two  and  turne  down  a  Lane  on  the  Right  hand ;  and  by 
their  Direction  wee  Rode  on  but  not  Yet  comeing  to  ye  turning,  we  mett  a 
Young  fellow  and  ask't  him  how  farr  it  was  to  the  Lane  which  turn'd  down 
towards  Guilford.  Hee  said  wee  must  Ride  a  little  further,  and  turn  down 
by  the  Corner  of  uncle  Sams  Lott.  My  Guide  vented  his  Spleen  at  the 
Lubber ;  and  we  soon  after  came  into  the  Rhode,  and  keeping  still  on,  without 
any  thing  further  Remarkabell,  about  two  a  clock  afternoon  we  arrived  at 
New  Haven,  where  I  was  received  with  all  Possible  Respects  and  civility. 
Here  I  discharged  Mr.  Wheeler  with  a  reward  to  his  satisfaction,  and  took 
some  time  to  rest  after  so  long  and  toilsome  a  Journey ;  And  Inform'd  myselfe 
of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  place,  and  at  the  same  time  employed 
myselfe  in  the  affair  I  went  there  upon. 

They  are  Govern'd  by  the  same  Laws  as  wee  in  Boston,  (or  little  differ- 
ing,) thr'out  this  whole  Colony  of  Connecticot,  And  much  the  same  way  of 
church  Government,  and  many  of  them  good,  Sociable  people,  and  I  hope 
Religious  too:  but  a  little  too  much  Independant  in  their  principalis,  and,  as 
I  have  been  told,  were  formerly  in  their  Zeal  very  Riggid  in  their  Admin- 
istrations towards  such  as  their  Lawes  made  Offenders,  even  to  a  harmless 
Kiss  or  Innocent  merriment  among  Young  people.  Whipping  being  frequent 
and  counted  an  easy  Punishment,  about  wch  as  other  Crimes,  the  Judges  were 
absolute  in  their  Sentances.  They  told  mee  a  pleasant  story  about  a  pair  of 
Justices  in  thoes  parts,  wch  I  may  not  omit  the  relation  of. 

A  negro  Slave  belonging  to  a  man  in  ye  Town,  stole  a  hogs  head  from 
his  master,  and  gave  or  sold  it  to  an  Indian,  native  of  the  place.  The  Indian 
sold  it  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  so  the  theft  was  found  out.  Thereupon  the 
Heathen  was  Seized,  and  carried  to  the  Justices  House  to  be  Eramined.  But 
his  worship  (it  seems)  was  gone  into  the  field,  with  a  Brother  in  office,  to 
gather  in  his  Pompions.  Whither  the  malefactor  is  hurried.  And  Complaint 
made,  and  satisfaction  in  the  name  of  Justice  demanded.  Their  Worships 
can't  proceed  in  form  without  a  Bench:  whereupon  they  Order  one  to  be 
Imediately  erected,  which,  for  want  of  fitter  materials,  they  made  with 
pompions — which  being  finished,  down  setts  their  Worships,  and  the  Male- 
factor call'd,  and  by  the  Senior  Justice  Interrogated  after  the  following  man- 
ner. You  Indian  why  did  You  steal  from  this  man?  You  sho'dn't  do  so — it's 
a  Grandy  wicked  thing  to  steal.  Hol't  Hol't,  cryes  Justice  Junr,  Brother, 
You  speak  negro  to  him.  I'le  ask  him.  You  sirrah,  why  did  You  steal  this 
man's  Hoggshead?  Hoggshead?  (replys  the  Indian,)  me  no  stomany.  No? 
says  his  Worship ;  and  pulling  off  his  hatt,  Patted  his  own  head  with  his 
hand,  sais,  Tatapa — You,  Tatapa — you;  all  one  this.  Hoggshead  all  one  this. 
Hah !  says  Netop,  now  me  stomanv  that.  Whereupon  the  Company  fell  into 
a  great  fitt  of  Laughter,  even  to  Roreing.  Silence  is  co-manded,  but  to  no 
effect :  for  they  continued  perfectly  Shouting.  Nay,  sais  his  worship,  in  an 
angry  tone,  if  it  be  so,  take  mee  off  the  Bench. 

Their  Diversions  in  this  part  of  the  Country  are  on  Lecture  days  and 
Training  days  mostly ;  on  the  former  there  is  Riding  from  town  to  town. 
And  on  training  dayes  The  Youth  divert  themselves  by  Shooting  at  the 
Target,  as  they  call  it,  (but  it  very  much  resembles  a  pillory,)  where  bee 
that  hitts  neerest  the  white  has  .some  yards  of  Red  Ribbin  presented  him, 
wch  being  tied  to  his  hattband,  the  two  ends  streeming  down  his  back,  he 


GENERAL  FACTS  21 

is  Led  away  in  Triumph,  wth  great  applause,  as  the  winners  of  the  Olympiack 
Games.  They  generally  marry  very  young:  the  males  oftener  as  I  am  told 
under  twentie  than  above;  they  generally  make  public  wcdings,  and  have  a 
way  something  singular  (as  they  say)  in  some  of  them,  viz.  Just  before  Joyn- 
ing  hands  the  Bridegroom  quitts  the  place,  who  is  soon  followed  by  the 
Bridesmen,  and  as  it  were,  dragg'd  back  to  duty — being  the  reverse  to  ye 
former  practice  among  us,  to  steal  ms  Pride. 

There  are  great  plenty  of  Oysters  all  along  by  the  sea  side,  as  farr  as  I 
Rode  in  the  Collony,  and  those  very  good.  And  they  Generally  lived  very 
well  and  comfortably  in  their  famelies.  But  too  Indulgent  (especially  ye 
farmers)  to  their  slaves:  sufering  too  great  familiarity  from  them,  permitting 
ym  to  sit  at  Table  and  eat  with  them,  (as  they  say  to  save  time,)  and  into 
the  dish  goes  the  black  hoof  as  freely  as  the  white  hand.  They  told  me  that 
there  was  a  farmer  lived  nere  the  Town  where  I  lodgd  who  had  some  differ- 
ence wth  his  slave,  concerning  something  the  master  had  promised  him  and 
did  not  punctualy  perform ;  wch  caused  some  hard  words  between  them ; 
But  at  length  they  put  the  matter  to  Arbitration  and  Bound  themselves  to 
stand  to  the  award  of  such  as  they  named — wch  done,  the  Arbitrators  Hav- 
ing heard  the  Allegations  of  both  parties.  Order  the  master  to  pay  40s  to 
black  face,  and  acknowledge  his  fault.  And  so  the  matter  ended:  the  poor 
master  very  honestly  standing  to  the  award. 

There  are  every  where  in  the  Towns  as  I  passed,  a  Number  of  Indians 
the  Natives  of  the  Country,  and  are  the  most  salvage  of  all  the  salvages  of 
that  kind  that  I  had  ever  Seen:  little  or  no  care  taken  (as  I  heard  upon  en- 
quiry) to  make  them  otherwise.  They  have  in  some  places  Landes  of  their 
owne,  and  Govern'd  by  Law's  of  their  own  making; — they  marry  many  wives 
and  at  pleasure  put  them  away,  and  on  the  ye  lea.st  dislike  or  fickle  humour, 
on  either  side,  saying  "stand  away"  to  one  another  is  a  sufficient  Divorce. 
And  indeed  those  uncomel}'  Stand  aways  are  too  much  in  Vougue  among  the 
English  in  this  (Indulgent  Colony)  as  their  Records  plentifully  prove,  and 
that  on  very  trivial  matters,  of  which  some  have  been  told  me,  but  are  not 
proper  to  be  Related  by  a  Female  pen,  tho  some  of  that  foolish  sex  have  had 
too  large  a  share  in  the  story. 

If  the  natives  committ  any  crime  on  their  own  precincts  among  them- 
selves, ye  English  takes  no  Cognezens  of.  But  if  on  the  English  ground, 
they  are  punishable  by  our  Laws.  They  mourn  for  their  Dead  bv  blacking 
their  faces,  and  cutting  their  hair,  after  an  Awkerd  and  frightfull  manner; 
But  can't  bear  You  should  mention  the  names  of  their  dead  Relations  to 
them :  they  trade  most  for  Rum,  for  wch  thcyd  hazzard  their  very  lives ;  and 
the  English  fit  them  Generally  as  well,  by  seasoning  it  plentifully  with  water. 

They  give  the  title  of  merchant  to  every  trader;  who  Rate  their  Goods 
according  to  the  time  and  spetia  they  pay  in:  viz.  Pay,  mony.  Pay  as  mony, 
and  trusting.  Pay  is  G'-ain,  Pork,  Beef.  &c.  at  the  prices  sett  by  the  General 
Court  that  Year;  mrny  is  pieces  of  Eight.  Ryalls,  or  Boston  or  Bay  shillings 
(as  they  call  them,)  or  Good  hard  money,  as  sometimes  silver  coin  is  termed 
by  them  ;  also  Wampom.  vizt.  Indian  beads  wch  serves  for  change.  Pay  as 
mony  is  provisions,  as  aforesd  one  Third  cheaper  then  as  the  Assembly  or 
Genel  Court  sets  it ;  and  Trust  as  the\'  and  the  mercht  agree  for  t^mc. 

Now,  when  the  buyer  comes  to  ask  for  a  comodity,  sometimes  before  the 
merchant  answers  that  he  has  it,  he  sais,  is  Your  pay  redy?  Perhaps  the 
Chap  Reply's  Yes:  what  do  You  pay  in?  says  the  merchant.  The  buyer 
having  answered,  then  the  price  is  set;  as  suppose  he  wants  a  sixpenny  knife, 
in  pay  it  is  I2d — in  paj'  as  money  eight  pence,  and  hard  money  its  own  price. 


22  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

viz.  6d.     It  seems  a  very  Intricate  way  of  trade  and  what  Lex  Mercatoria 
had  not  thought  of. 

Being  at  a  merchants  house,  in  comes  a  tall  country  fellow  with  his 
alfogeos  full  of  Tobacco;  for  they  seldom  Loose  their  Cudd,  but  keep  Chewing 
and  Spitting  as  long  as  they'r  eyes  are  open, — he  advanc't  to  the  midle  of  the 
Room,  makes  an  Awkward  Nodd,  and  spitting  a  Large  deal  of  Aromatick 
Tincture,  he  gave  a  scrape  with  his  shove!  like  shoo,  leaving  a  small  shovel 
full  of  dirt  on  the  floor,  made  a  full  stop.  Hugging  his  own  pretty  Body  with 
his  hands  under  his  arms.  Stood  staring  rown'd  him,  like  a  Catt  let  out  of  a 
Baskett.  At  last,  like  the  creature  Balaam  Rode  on,  he  opened  his  mouth 
and  said:  have  You  any  Ribinen  for  Hatbands  to  sell  I  pray?  The  Questions 
and  Answers  about  the  pay  being  past,  the  Ribin  is  bro't  and  opened.  Bump- 
kin Simpers,  cryes  "its  confounded  Gay  I  vow" ;  and  beckning  to  the  door, 
in  comes  Jone  Tawdry  dropping  about  50  curtsees,  and  stands  by  him:  hee 
shows  her  the  Ribin.  "Law,  You,"  sais  shee,  "its  right  Gent,  do  You,  take 
it,  tis  dreadfull  pretty."  Then  she  enquires,  "have  You  any  hood  silk  I  pray?" 
wch  being  brought  and  bought.  "Have  You  any  thred  silk  to  sew  it  wth" 
says  shee,  wch  being  accomodated  wth  they  Departed.  They  Generaly  stand 
after  they  come  in  a  great  while  speachless,  and  sometimes  dont  say  a  word 
till  they  are  askt  what  they  want,  wliich  I  impute  to  the  Awe  they  stand 
in  of  the  merchants,  who  they  are  constantly  almost  Indebted  too;  and  must 
take  what  they  bring  without  Liberty  to  choose  for  themselves ;  but  they 
serve  them  as  well,  making  the  merchants  stay  long  enough  for  their  pay. 

We  may  Observe  here  the  great  necessity  and  bennifitt  both  of  Education 
and  Conversation ;  for  these  people  have  as  Large  a  portion  of  mother  witt, 
and  sometimes  a  Larger,  than  those  who  have  bin  brought  up  in  Cities ;  But 
for  want  of  emprovements.  Render  themselves  almost  Ridiculos,  as  above. 
I  should  be  glad  if  they  would  leave  such  follies,  and  am  sure  all  that  Love 
Clean  Houses  (at  least)  would  be  glad  on't  too.  They  are  generaly  very 
plain  in  their  dress,  throuout  all  ye  Colony,  as  I  saw,  and  follow  one  another 
in  their  modes ;  that  You  may  know  where  they  belong,  especially  the  women, 
meet  them  where  you  will. 

Their  Cheif  Red  Letter  daj'  is  St.  Election,  wch  is  annually  Observed 
according  to  Charter,  to  choose  their  Govenr:  a  blessing  they  can  never  be 
thankfull  enough  for,  as  they  will  find,  if  ever  it  be  their  hard  fortune  to 
loose  it.  The  present  Governor  in  Connecticott  is  the  Honble  John  \Ym- 
throp  Esq.  A  Gentleman  of  an  Ancient  and  Honourable  Family,  whose  Father 
was  Govenor  here  sometime  before,  and  his  Grand  father  had  bin  Govr  of 
the  Massachusetts.  This  gentleman  is  a  very  curteous  and  afable  person, 
much  Given  to  Hospitalitv.  and  has  bv  his  Good  services  Gain'd  the  affections 
of  the  people  as  much  as  any  who  had  bin  before  him  in  that  post. 

Deer.  6th.  Being  by  this  time  well  Recruited  and  rested  after  m}-  Journy, 
my  business  lying  unfinished  by  some  concerns  at  New  York  depending 
thereupon,  my  Kinsman,  Mr.  Thomas  Trowbridge  of  New  Haven,  must  needs 
take  a  Journy  there  before  it  could  be  accomplished,  I  resolved  to  go  there 
in  company  wth  him,  and  a  man  of  the  town  wch  I  engaged  to  wait  on  me 
there.  Accordingh',  Dec.  6th  we  set  out  from  New  Haven,  and  about  11 
same  morning  came  to  Stratford  ferry;  wch  crossing,  about  two  miles  on 
the  other  side  Baited  our  horses  and  would  have  eat  a  morsell  ourselves.  But 
the  Pumpkin  and  Indian  mixt  Bred  had  such  an  Aspect,  and  the  Bare-legg'd 
Punch  so  awkerd  or  rather  Awfull  a  sound,  that  we  left  both,  and  proceeded 
forward,  and  about  seven  at  night  come  to  Fairfield,  where  we  met  with  good 
entertainment  and  Lodg'd ;  and  early  next  morning  set  forward  to  Norowalk, 
from  its  halfe  Indian  name  North-walk,  when  about  12  at  noon  we  arrived. 


GENERAL  FACTS  23 

and  Had  a  Dinner  of  Fryed  Venison,  very  savoury.  Landlady  wanting  some 
pepper  in  the  seasoning,  bid  the  Girl  hand  her  the  spice  in  the  little  Gay 
cupp  on  ye  shelfe.  From  hence  we  Hasted  towards  Rye,  walking  and  Lead- 
ing our  Horses  neer  a  mile  together,  up  a  prodigios  high  Hill ;  and  so  Riding 
till  about  nine  at  night,  and  there  arived  and  took  up  our  Lodgings  at  an 
ordinary,  wch  a  P'rench  family  kept.  Here  being  very  hungry,  I  desired  a 
fricasee,  wch  the  Frenchman  undertakeing,  managed  so  contrary  to  my  notion 
of  Cookery,  that  I  hastened  to  Bed  superless ;  And  being  shewd  the  wav  up  a 
pair  of  stairs  wch  had  such  a  narrow  passage  that  I  had  almost  stopt  by  the 
Bulk  of  my  Body ;  But  arriving  at  my  apartment  found  it  to  be  a  little  Lento 
Chamber  furnisht  amongst  other  Rubbish  with  a  High  Bedd  and  a  Low  one, 
a  Long  Table,  a  Bench  and  a  Bottomless  chair, — Little  Miss  went  to  scratch 
up  my  Kennell  wch  Russelled  as  if  shee'd  bin  in  the  Barn  amongst  the  Husks, 
and  supose  such  was  the  contents  of  the  tickin — nevertheless  being  exceeding 
weary,  down  I  laid  my  poor  Carkes  (never  more  tired)  and  found  my  Cover- 
ing as  scanty  as  my  Bed  was  hard.  Anon  I  heard  another  Russelling  noise 
in  Ye  Room — called  to  know  the  matter — Little  miss  said  shee  was  making 
a  bed  for  the  men ;  who,  when  they  were  in  Bed,  complained  their  leggs  lay 
out  of  it  by  reason  of  its  shortness — mv  poor  bones  complained  bitterly  not 
Deing  used  to  such  Lodgings,  and  so  did  the  man  who  was  with  us ;  and  poor 
I  made  but  one  Grone,  which  was  from  the  time  I  went  to  bed  to  the  time  I 
Riss,  which  was  about  three  in  the  morning.  Setting  up  by  the  Fire  till  Light, 
and  having  discharged  our  ordinary  wch  was  as  dear  as  if  w^e  had  had  far 
Better  fare — wee  took  our  leave  of  Monsier  and  about  seven  in  the  morn 
come  to  New  Rochell  a  french  town,  where  we  had  a  good  Breakfast.  And 
in  the  strength  of  that  about  and  how'r  before  sunsett  got  to  York.  Here 
I  applyd  mj'eslf  to  !Mr.  Burroughs,  a  merchant  to  whom  I  was  recommended 
by  my  Kinsman  Capt.  Prout,  and  received  great  Civilities  from  him  and  his 
spouse,  who  were  now  -both  Deaf  but  \-ery  agreeable  in  their  Conversation, 
Diverting  me  with  pleasant  stories  of  their  knowledge  in  Brittan  from  whence 
they  both  come,  one  of  which  was  above  the  rest  very  pleasant  to  me  viz.  my 
Lord  Darc}^  had  a  very  extravagant  Brother  who  had  mortgaged  what  Estate 
hee  could  not  sell,  and  in  good  time  dj'ed  leaving  only  one  son.  Him  his 
Lordship  (having  none  of  his  own)  took  and  made  him  Heir  of  his  whole 
Estate,  which  he  was  to  receive  at  the  death  of  his  Aunt.  He  and  his  Aunt 
in  her  widowhood  held  a  right  understanding  and  lived  as  become  such  Rela- 
tions, shee  being  a  discreet  Gentlewoman  and  he  an  Ingenios  Young  man. 
One  daj'  Hce  fell  into  some  Company  though  far  his  inferiors,  very  freely 
told  him  of  the  111  circumstances  his  fathers  Estate  lay  under,  and  the  many 
Debts  he  left  unpaid  to  the  wrong  of  poor  people  with  whom  he  had  dealt. 
The  Y'oung  gentleman  was  put  out  of  countenance — no  way  hee  could  think 
of  to  Redress  himeslf — his  whole  dependance  being  on  the  Lady  his  Aunt, 
and  how  to  speak  to  her  he  knew  not — Hee  went  home,  sat  down  to  dinner 
and  as  usual  sometimes  with  her  when  the  Chaplain  was  absent,  she  desired 
him  to  sa}^  Grace,  wch  he  did  after  this  manner: 

Pray  God  in  Mercv'  take  my  Lady  Darcy 

Unto  his  Heavenly  Throne: 
That  Little  John  may  live  like  a  man, 
And  pay  every  man  his  own. 

The  prudent  Lady  took  no  present  notice.  But  finishd  dinner,  after  wch 
having  sat  and  talk't  awhile  (as  Customary)  He  Riss.  took  his  Hatt  and 
Going  out  she  desired  him  to  give  her  leave  to  speak  to  him  in  her  Clossett, 
Where  being  come  she  desired  to  know  why  hee  prayed  for  her  Death  in 


24  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

the  manner  aforesaid,  and  what  part  of  her  deportment  towards  him  merritted 
such  desires.  Hee  Reply'd,  none  at  all,  But  he  was  under  such  disadvan- 
tages that  nothing  but  that  could  do  him  service,  and  told  her  how  he  had 
been  affronted  as  above,  and  what  Impressions  it  had  made  upon  him.  The 
Lady  made  him  a  gentle  reprimand  that  he  had  not  informed  her  after 
another  manner.  Bid  him  see  what  his  father  owed  and  he  should  have  money 
to  pay  it  to  a  penny,  And  always  to  lett  her  know  his  wants  and  he  should 
have  a  redy  supply.  The  Young  Gentleman  charm'd  with  his  Aunts  Discrete 
management,  Beggd  her  pardon  and  accepted  her  kind  ofifer  and  retrieved  his 
fathers  Estate.  &c.  and  said  Hee  hoped  his  Aunt  would  never  dye,  for  shee 
had  done  better  by  him  than  hee  could  have  done  for  himself. — Mr.  Burroughs 
went  with  me  to  Vendue  where  I  bought  about  lOO  Rheem  of  paper  wch  was 
retaken  in  a  fly-boat  from  Holland  and  sold  very  Reasonably  here — some  ten, 
some  Eight  shillings  per  Rheem  by  the  Lott  wch  was  ten  Rheem  in  a  Lott 
And  at  the  Vendue  I  made  a  great  many  acquaintances  amongst  the  good 
women  of  the  town,  who  curteosly  invited  me  to  their  houses  and  generously 
entertained  me. 

The  Cittie  of  New  York  is  a  pleasant,  well  compacted  place,  situated  on 
a  Commodius  River  wch  is  a  fine  harbour  for  shipping.  The  Buildings  Brick 
Generaly,  very  stately  and  high,  though  not  altogether  like  ours  in  Boston. 
The  Bricks  in  some  of  the  Houess  are  of  divers  Coullers  and  laid  in  Checkers, 
being  glazed  look  very  agreeable.  The  inside  of  them  are  neat  to  admiration, 
the  wooden  work,  for  only  the  walls  are  plasterd,  and  the  Sumers  and  Gist 
are  plained  and  kept  very  white  scowr'd  as  so  is  all  the  partitions  if  made 
of  Bords.  The  fire  places  have  no  Jambs  (as  ours  have)  But  the  Backs  run 
flush  with  the  walls,  and  the  Hearth  is  of  Tyles  and  is  as  farr  out  into  the 
Room  at  the  Ends  as  before  the  fire,  wch  is  Generally  Five  foot  in  the  Low'r 
rooms,  and  the  pcice  over  where  the  mantle  tree  should  be  is  made  as  ours 
with  Joyners  work,  and  as  I  supose  is  fasten'd  to  Iron  rodds  inside.  The 
House  where  the  Vendue  was,  had  Chimney  Corners  like  ours,  and  they  and 
the  hearths  were  laid  wth  the  finest  tile  that  I  ever  see,  and  the  stair  cases 
laid  all  with  white  tile  which  is  ever  clean,  and  so  are  the  walls  of  the 
Kitchen  wch  had  a  Brick  floor.  They  were  making  Great  preparations  to 
Receive  their  Govenor,  Lord  Cornbury  from  the  Jerseys,  and  for  that  End 
raised  the  militia  to  Gard  him  on  shore  to  the  fort. 

They  are  Generaly  of  the  Church  of  England  and  have  a  New  England 
Gentleman  for  their  minister,  and  a  very  fine  church  set  out  with  all  Cus- 
tomary requsites.  There  are  also  a  Dutch  and  Divers  Conventicles  as  they 
call  them,  viz.  Baptist,  Quakers,  &c.  They  are  not  strict  in  keeping  the 
Sabbath  as  in  Boston  and  other  places  where  I  had  bin,  But  seem  to  deal 
with  great  exactness  as  farr  as  I  see  or  Deall  with.  They  are  sociable  to 
one  another  and  Curteos  and  Civill  to  strangers  and  fare  well  in  their  houses. 
The  English  go  very  fasheonable  in  their  dress.  But  the  Dutch,  especially 
the  middling  sort,  differ  from  our  women,  in  their  habitt  go  loose,  were 
French  muches  wch  are  like  a  Capp  and  a  head  band  in  one,  leaving  their 
ears  bare,  which  are  sett  out  with  Jewells  of  a  large  size  and  many  in 
number.  And  their  fingers  hoop't  with  Rings,  some  with  large  stones  in 
them  of  many  Coullers  as  were  their  pendants  in  their  ears,  which  You 
should   see   very  old  women  wear  as   well   as  Young. 

They  have  Vendues  very  frequently  and  make  their  Earnings  verv  well 
by  them  for  they  treat  with  good  Liquor  Liberally,  and  the  Customers  Drink 
as  Liberally  and  Generally  pay  for't  as  well,  by  paying  for  that  which  they 
Bid  up  Briskly  for,  after  the  sack  has  gone  plentifully  about,  tho'  sometimes 
good    penny    worths    are    got    there.      Their    Diversions    in    the    Winter    is 


GENERAL  FACTS  25 

Riding  Sleys  about  three  or  four  IMiles  out  of  town,  where  thej^  have  Houses 
of  entertainment  at  a  place  called  the  Bowery,  and  some  go  to  friends  Houses 
who  handsomely  treat  them.  Mr.  Burroughs  cary'd  his  spouse  and  Daughter 
and  myeslf  out  to  one  Madame  Dowes,  a  Gentlewoman  that  lived  at  a  farm 
House,  who  gave  us  a  handsome  Entertainment  of  five  or  six  Dishes  and 
choice  Beer  and  metheglin,  Cyder,  &c.  all  which  she  said  was  the  prciduce 
of  her  farm.  I  believe  we  mett  50  or  60  slays  that  day — they  fly  with  great 
swiftness  and  some  are  so  furious  that  they'le  turn  out  of  the  path  for  none 
except  a  Loaden  Cart.  Nor  do  they  spare  for  any  diversion  the  place  affords, 
and  sociable  to  a  degree,  they'r  Tables  being  as  free  to  their  Naybours  as  to 
themselves. 

Having  here  transacted  the  affair  I  went  upon  and  some  other  that  fell 
in  the  way,  after  about  a  fortnight's  stay  there  I  left  New-York  with  no 
Little  regrett,  and  Thursday,  Dec.  21,  set  out  for  New  Haven  with  my 
Kinsman,  Trowbridge,  and  the  man  that  waited  on  me  about  one  afternoon, 
and  about  three  come  to  half-way  house  about  ten  miles  out  of  town,  v^'here 
we  Baited  and  went  forward,  and  about  S  come  to  Spiting  Devil,  Else  Kings 
bridge,  where  they  pay  three  pence  for  passing  over  with  a  horse,  which  the 
man  that  keeps  the  Gate  set  up  at  the  end  of  the  Bridge  receives. 

We  hoped  to  reach  the  french  town  and  Lodg  there  that  night,  but 
unhapily  lost  our  way  about  four  miles  short,  and  being  overtaken  by  a  great 
storm  of  wind  and  snow  which  set  full  in  our  faces  about  dark,  we  were  very 
uneasy.  But  meeting  one  Gardner  who  lived  in  a  Cottage  thereabout,  offered 
us  his  fire  to  set  by,  having  but  one  poor  Bedd,  and  his  wife  not  w'ell,  &c.  or 
he  would  go  to  a  House  with  us,  where  he  thought  we  might  be  better 
accommodated — thither  we  went.  But  a  surly  old  shee  Creature,  not  worthy 
the  name  of  woman,  who  would  hardly  let  us  go  into  her  Door,  though  the 
weather  was  so  stormy  none  but  shee  would  have  turnd  out  a  Dogg.  But 
her  son  whose  name  was  Gallop,  who  lived  Just  by  Invited  us  to  his  house 
and  shewed  me  two  pair  of  stairs,  viz.  one  up  the  loft  and  tother  up  the 
Redd,  wch  was  as  hard  as  it  was  high,  and  warmed  it  with  a  hott  stone  ?'■ 
the  feet.  I  lay  very  uncomfortably,  insomuch  that  I  was  so  very  cold  and 
sick  I  was  forced  to  call  them  up  to  give  me  something  to  warm  me.  They 
had  nothing  but  milk  in  the  house,  w-ch  they  Boild,  and  to  make  it  better 
sweetened  wth  molasses,  which  I  not  knowing  or  thinking  oft  till  it  was  down 
and  coming  up  agen  wch  it  did  in  so  plentifull  a  manner  that  my  host  was 
soon  paid  double  for  his  portion,  and  that  in  specia.  But  I  believe  it  did  me 
service  in  Cleering  my  stomach.  So  after  this  sick  and  weary  night  at  East 
Chester,  fa  very  miserable  poor  place,)  the  weather  being  now  fair,  Friday 
the  22d  Dec.  we  set  out  for  New  Rochell,  where  being  come  we  had  good 
Entertainment  and  Recruited  ourselves  very  well.  This  is  a  very  pretty 
jdace  well  compact,  and  good  handsome  houses.  Clean,  good  and  passable 
Rodes,  and  situated  on  a  Navigable  River,  abundance  of  land  well  fined  and 
Cleerd  all  along  as  wee  passed,  which  caused  in  me  a  Love  to  the  place,  wch 
I  could  have  been  content  to  live  in  it.  Here  wee  Ridd  over  a  Bridge  made  of 
one  entire  stone  of  such  a  Breadth  that  a  cart  might  pass  with  safety,  and 
to  spare — it  lay  over  a  passage  cutt  through  a  Rock  to  convey  water  to  a 
mill  not  farr  off.  Here  are  three  fine  Taverns  within  call  of  each  other,  very 
good  provision  for  Travailers. 

Thence  we  travailed  through  Merrinak,  a  neet,  though  little  place,  wth 
a  navigable  River  before  it,  one  of  the  pleasantest  I  ever  see — Here  were  good 
Buildings, Especialy  one,  a  verv  fine  seat,  wch  they  told  me  wasCol.Hethcoats, 
who  I  had  heard  was  a  very  fine  Gentleman.  From  hence  we  come  to  Hors 
Neck,  where  wee  Baited,  and  they  told  me  that  one  Church  of  England  parson 


26  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

officiated  in  all  these  three  towns  once  every  Sunday  in  turns  throughout  the 
Year;  and  that  thc_\-  all  could  hut  poorly  maintaine  him,  which  they  grudg'd 
to  do,  being  a  poor  and  quarelsome  crew  as  I  understand  by  our  Host ;  their 
Quarelling  about  their  choice  of  Minister,  they  chose  to  have  none — But 
caused  the  Government  to  send  this  Gentleman  to  them.  Here  wee  took  leave 
of  York  Government,  and  Descending  the  Mountainos  passage  that  almost 
broke  my  heart  in  ascending  before,  we  come  to  Stamford,  a  well  compact 
Town,  but  miserable  meeting  house,  wch  we  passed,  and  thro'  many  and 
great  difficulties,  as  Bridges  which  were  exceeding  high  and  very  tottering 
and  of  vast  Length,  steep  and  Rocky  Hills  and  precipices,  (Buggbears  to  a 
fearful  female  travailer.)  About  nine  at  night  we  come  to  Norrwalk,  having 
crept  over  a  timber  of  a  Broken  Bridge  about  thirty  foot  long,  and  perhaps 
fifty  to  ye  water.  I  was  exceeding  tired  and  cold  when  we  come  to  our  Inn, 
and  could  get  nothing  there  but  poor  entertainment,  and  the  Impertinant 
Bable  of  one  of  the  worst  of  men,  among  many  others  of  which  our  Host 
made  one,  who,  had  he  bin  one  degree  Impudenter,  would  have  outdone  his 
Grandfather.  And  this  I  think  is  the  most  perplexed  night  I  have  yet  had. 
From  hence,  Saturday,  Dec.  23,  a  very  cold  and  windy  day,  after  an  Intoler- 
able night's  Lodging,  wee  hastened  forward  only  observing  in  our  way  the 
Town  to  be  situated  on  a  Navigable  river  wth  indiferent  Buildings  and  people 
more  refind  than  in  some  of  the  Country  towns  wee  had  passed,  tho'  vicious 
enough,  the  Church  and  Tavern  being  next  neighbours.  Having  Ridd  thro 
a  difficult  River  wee  come  to  Fairfield  where  wee  Baited  and  were  much 
refreshed  as  well  with  the  Good  things  wch  gratified  our  appetites  as  the 
time  took  to  rest  our  wearied  Limbs,  wch  Latter  I  employed  in  enquiring 
concerning  the  Town  and  manners  of  the  people,  &c.  This  is  a  considerable 
town,  and  filld  as  they  say  with  wealthy  people — have  a  spacious  meeting 
house  and  good  Buildings.  But  the  Inhabitants  are  Litigious,  nor  do  they 
well  agree  with  their  minister,  who  (they  say)  is  a  very  worthy  Gentleman. 
Thev  have  aboundance  of  sheep,  whose  very  Dung  brings  them  great 
gain,  with  part  of  which  they  pay  their  Parsons  sallery.  And  they  Grudg  that, 
preferring  their  Dung  before  their  minister.  They  Lett  out  their  sheep  at 
so  much  as  they  agree  upon  for  a  night ;  the  highest  Bidder  alwa\s  caries 
them,  And  they  will  sufficiently  Dung  a  Large  quantity  of  Land  before  morn- 
ing. But  were  once  Bitt  by  a  sharper  who  had  them  a  night  and  sheared 
them  all  before  morning — from  hence  we  went  to  Stratford,  the  next  Town, 
in  which  I  observed  but  few  houses,  and  those  not  very  good  ones.  But  the 
people  that  I  conversed  with  were  civill  and  good  natured.  Here  we  staid 
till  late  at  night,  being  to  cross  a  Dangerous  River  ferry,  the  River  at  that 
time  full  of  Ice ;  but  after  about  four  hours  waiting  with  great  difficulty  wee 
got  over.  My  fears  and  fatigues  prevented  my  here  taking  any  particular 
observation.  Being  got  to  ]\Iilford,  it  being  late  in  the  night,  I  could  go  no 
further ;  my  fellow  travailer  going  forward,  I  was  invited  to  I-odg  at  Mrs. 

,  a  very  kind  and  civill  Gentlewoman,  by  whom  I  was  handsomelv 

and  kindly  entertained  till  the  next  night.  The  people  here  go  very  plain  in 
their  apparel  (more  plain  than  I  had  observed  in  the  towns  I  had  passed) 
and  seem  to  be  very  grave  and  serious.  They  told  me  there  was  a  singing 
Quaker  lived  there,  or  at  least  had  a  strong  inclination  to  be  so.  His  Spouse 
not  at  all  affected  that  way.  Some  of  the  singing  Crew  come  there  one  dav 
to  visit  him,  who  being  then  abroad,  they  sat  down  (to  the  woman's  no  small 
vexation)  Humming  and  singing  and  groneing  after  their  conjuring  way — 
Says  the  woman  are  you  singing  quakers?  Yea  says  They — Then  take  my 
squalling  Brat  of  a  child  here  and  sing  to  it  says  she  for  I  have  almost  split 
my  throat  wth  singing  to  him  and  cant  get  the  Rogue  to  sleep.     They  took 


GENERAL  FACTS  27 

this  as  a  fjreat  Indignity,  and  mediately  departed.  Shaking  the  dust  from 
their  Heels  left  the  good  woman  and  her  child  among  the  number  of  the 
wicked.  This  is  a  Seaport  place  and  accommodated  with  a  Good  Harbour, 
But  I  had  not  opportunity  to  make  particular  obesrvations  because  it  was 
Sabbath  day — This  Evening. 

December  24.  I  set  out  with  the  Gentlewomans  son  who  she  very  civilly 
offered  to  go  with  me  when  she  see  no  parswasions  would  cause  me  to  stay 
while  she  pressingly  desired,  and  crossing  a  ferry  having  but  nine  miles  to 
New  Haven,  in  a  short  time  arrived  there  and  was  Kindly  received  and  well 
accommodated  amongst  m}^  Friends  and  Relations. 

The  Government  of  Connecticut  Collony  begins  westward  towards  York 
at  Stamford  (as  I  am  Told)  and  so  runs  Eastward  towards  Boston  (I  mean 
in  my  range,  because  I  dont  intend  to  extend  my  description  beyond  my 
own  travails)  and  ends  that  way  at  Stonington — And  has  a  great  many  Large 
towns  lying  more  northerly.  It  is  a  plentiful  Country  for  provisions  of  all 
sorts  and  its  Generally  Healthy  .  No  one  that  can  and  will  be  dilligent  in 
this  place  need  fear  poverty  nor  the  want  of  food  and  Rayment. 

January  6th.  Being  now  well  Recruited  and  fitt  for  business  I  discoursed 
the  persons  I  was  concerned  with,  that  we  might  finish  in  order  to  my  return 
to  Boston.  They  delayd  as  they  had  hitherto  done  hoping  to  tire  my  Patience. 
But  I  was  resolute  to  stay  and  see  an  End  of  the  matter  let  it  be  never  so 
much  to  my  disadvantage — So  January  gth  they  come  again  and  promise  the 
Wednesday  following  to  go  through  with  the  distribution  of  the  Estate 
which  they  dela3'ed  till  Thursday  and  then  come  with  new  amusements. 
But  at  length  by  the  mediation  of  that  holy  good  Gentleman,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
James  Pierpont,  the  minister  of  New  Haven,  and  with  the  advice  and  assist- 
ance of  other  our  Good  friends  we  come  to  an  accommodation  and  distribu- 
tion, which  having  finished  though  not  till  February,  the  man  that  waited  on 
me  to  York  taking  the  charge  of  me  I  sit  out  for  Boston.  We  went  from 
New  Haven  upon  the  ice  (the  ferry  being  not  passable  thereby)  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Pierpont  wth  Madam  Prout  Cuzin  Trowbridge  and  divers  others 
were  taking  leave  wee  went  onward  without  any  thing  Remarkabl  till  wee 
come  to  New  London  and  Lodged  again  at  Mr.  Saltonstalls — and  here  I 
dismist  my  Guide,  and  my  Generos  entertainer  provided  me  'Mr.  Samuel 
Rogers  of  that  place  to  go  home  with  me — I  stayed  a  day  here  Longer  than 
I  intended  by  the  Commands  of  the  Honble  Govenor  Winthrop  to  stay  and 
take  a  supper  with  him  whose  wonderful  civility  I  may  not  omitt.  The 
next  morning  I  Crossed  ye  Ferry  to  Groton,  having  had  the  Honor  of  the 
Company,  of  Madam  Livingston  (who  is  the  Govenors  Daughter)  and  Mary 
Christophers  and  divers  others  to  the  boat — And  that  night  Lodgd  at 
Stonington  and  had  Rost  Beef  and  pumpkin  sause  for  supper.  The  next 
night  at  Haven's  and  had  Rost  fowle.  an  the  next  day  wee  come  to  a  river 
which  by  Reason  of  Ye  Freshetts  coming  down  was  swell'd  so  high  wee 
feard  it  impassable  and  the  rapid  stream  was  very  terryfying — -However  we 
must  over  and  that  in  a  small  Cannoo.  Mr.  Rogers  assuring  me  of  his  good 
Conduct,  I  after  a  stay  of  near  an  how'r  on  the  shore  for  consultation  went 
into  the  Cannoo.  and  ]\Ir.  Rogers  paddled  about  100  yards  up  the  Creek  by 
the  shore  side,  turned  into  the  swift  stream  and  dexterously  steering  her  in 
a  moment  wee  come  to  the  other  side  as  swiftly  passing  as  an  arrow  shott  out 
of  the  Bow  by  a  strong  arm  .  I  staid  on  ye  shore  till  Hee  returned  to  fetch 
our  horses,  which  he  caused  to  swim  over  himself  bringing  the  furniture  in 
the  Cannoo.  But  it  is  past  my  skill  to  express  the  Exceeding  fright  all  their 
transactions  formed  in  me.  Wee  were  now  in  the  colony  of  the  Massachusetts 
and  taking  Lodgings  at  the  first  Inn  we  come  to  had  a  pretty  difficult  passage 


28  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

the  next  day  which  was  the  second  of  March  by  reason  of  the  sloughy  ways 
then  thawed  by  the  Sunn.  Here  I  mett  Capt.  John  Richards  of  Boston  who 
was  going  home,  So  being  very  glad  of  his  Company  we  Rode  something 
harder  than  hitherto,  and  missing  my  way  in  going  up  a  very  steep  Hill, 
my  hors  dropt  down  under  me  as  Dead ;  this  new  surprize  no  little  hurt  me 
meeting  it  Just  at  the  Entrance  into  Dedham  from  whence  we  intended  to 
reach  home  that  night.  But  was  now  obliged  to  gett  another  Hors  there  and 
leave  my  own,  resolving  for  Boston  that  night  if  possible.  But  in  going  over 
the  Causeway  at  Dedham  the  Bridge  benig  overflowed  by  the  high  waters 
comming  down  I  very  narrowly  escaped  falling  over  into  the  river  Hors 
and  all  wch  twas  almost  a  miracle  I  did  not — now  it  grew  late  in  the  after- 
noon and  the  people  having  very  much  discouraged  us  about  the  sloughy 
way  wch  they  said  wee  should  find  very  difficult  and  hazardous  it  so  wrought 
on  mee  being  tired  and  dispirited  and  disapointed  of  my  desires  of  going  home 
that  I  agreed  to  Lodg  there  that  night  wch  wee  did  at  the  house  of  one 
Draper,  and  the  next  day  being  March  3d  wee  got  safe  home  to  Boston,  where 
I  found  my  aged  and  tender  mother  and  my  Dear  and  only  Child  in  good 
health  with  open  arms  redy  to  receive  me,  and  my  Kind  relations  and  friends 
flocking  in  to  welcome  mee  and  hear  the  story  of  my  transactions  and 
travails  I  having  this  day  bin  five  months  from  home  and  now  I  cannot  fully 
express  my  Joy  and  Satisfaction.  But  desire  sincearly  to  adore  my  Great 
Benefactor  for  thus  graciously  carying  forth  and  returning  in  safety  his  un- 
worthy handmaid. 

The  country  suffered  little  from  the  ravages  of  King  Philip's  War,  new 
settlers  continued  to  arrive,  the  population  grew,  the  new  generation  took 
up  the  tasks  of  clearing  the  land,  tilling  the  soil,  and  carrying  on  the  various 
crafts  needed  in  a  small  community. 

A  list  of  the  names  of  the  original  families  of  these  towns  will  include 
many  names  familiar  to  students  of  American  Historj' — names  prominent  in 
the  Colonial  period,  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  in  the  development  of  our 
whole  country  as  the  pioneers  spread  westward  to  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and 
ultimately  on  to  the  Pacific.  Under  the  history  of  each  town  will  be  found 
the  names  of  early  settlers. 

Before  1710  New  London  county  had  furnished  for  Connecticut  three 
Governors,  and  two  Chief  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

Though  the  founders  were  closely  allied,  there  seems  to  have  been  much 
rivalry  between  New  London  and  Norwich  in  early  days.  The  first  and  only 
magistrate  of  the  county  during  his  lifetime  was  John  Mason,  of  Norwich, 
and  he  usually  held  his  court  at  home.  After  his  death,  a  New  London  man 
was  appointed.  There  was  for  many  years  an  effort  on  the  part  of  Norwich 
to  have  sessions  of  the  Superior  Court  held  in  Norwich  half  the  time.  The 
first  county  court  house  was  located  in  New  London  in  1724.  After  the 
burning  of  New  London  in  1781.  a  new  one  was  erected  at  the  head  of  State 
street.  Norwich  became  a  "half-shire"  town  in  1734,  and  soon  erected  a  jail 
with  whipping  post  and  pillory  near  by.  Its  court  house  of  1829  was  burned 
in  1865,  and  replaced  soon  after  by  the  present  court  house  at  the  "Landing." 

It  is  hard  for  the  present  generation  to  realize  how  closely  knit  were 
Church   and    State   in    these   colonial    days.     Dr.   Daniel    Coit   Gilman,   later 


GENERAL  FACTS  29 

president  of  Johns  Hopkins,  at  that  time  librarian  of  Yale  College,  delivered 
at  Norwich  in  September,  1859,  at  the  celebration  of  the  200th  anniversary 
of  Norwich,  an  address  which  is  a  mine  of  information  on  matters  pertaining 
to  the  early  history  of  New  London  county.  We  quote  his  words  regarding 
religious  conditions  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  centurj' : 

I  have  already  said  that  the  first  manuscript  records  of  the  church  have 
perished.  One  curious  printed  document  has  lately  been  discovered,  bearing 
date  1675,  which  is  interesting  in  its  bearing  on  the  history  of  these  times. 
The  only  complete  copy  with  which  I  am  acquainted  belongs  to  Mr.  George 
Brinley,  of  Hartford,  who  has  kindly  permitted  me  to  bring  it  before  you. 
It  is  an  old  fashioned  duodecimo  of  133  pages,  printed  in  1683,  bearing  on 
its  title  page  the  autographs  of  Increase  Mather  and  of  Mather  Byles.  It 
contains  three  distinct  treatises;  the  first,  "An  explanation  of  the  solemn 
advice,  recommended  by  the  council  in  Connecticut  colony  to  the  inhabitants 
in  that  jurisdiction";  and  the  third,  "A  brief  discourse  proving  that  the  first 
day  of  the  week  is  the  Christian  Sabbath."  Both  of  these  are  attributed  to 
Mr.  Fitch.  Appended  to  the  former  is  "The  Covenant,  which  was  solemnly 
renewed  by  the  church  in  Norwich,  in  Connecticut  colony,  in  New  England, 
March  22,  1675."  The  volume  is  introduced  by  a  letter  from  Increase  Mather, 
"to  the  reader,"  in  which  he  says  that  "the  reverend  and  worthy  author  had 
no  thought  of  publishing  these  brief  and  nervous  discourses  until  such  time 
as  others  did  importune  him  thereunto,"  and  proceeds  to  comment  on  their 
scope  and  character. 

The  circumstances  which  attended  this  "renewal"  are  worthy  of  mention. 
The  war  with  King  Philip  was  then  raging.  Norwich,  though  much  exposed 
by  its  situation  on  the  frontier,  had  freely  contributed  more  than  its  quota 
to  the  active  army ;  so  freely,  indeed,  that  the  General  Court  sent  on  from 
Hartford  ten  men,  from  New  Haven  eight,  and  from  Fairfield  eight,  "to  lye 
in  garrison  at  Norwich,"  as  a  guard  to  the  inhabitants.  So  great  was  the 
danger  in  those  days  that  the  watch  in  each  plantation  was  ordered  "at  least 
an  hour  before  day,  to  call  up  the  inhabitants,  who  should  forthwith  rise  and 
arm  themselves,  march  to  the  fort,  and  stand  guard  against  any  assault  of 
the  enemy  until  the  sun  be  half  an  hour  high  in  the  morning."  Under  these 
circumstances,  on  the  13th  of  March,  Mr.  Fitch  writes  to  the  council  in  Hart- 
ford. After  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  a  letter  from  the  council,  with  their 
orders  for  a  fast  day,  he  continues : 

"Blessed  be  the  Lord  who  hath  moved  your  hearts  in  so  necessarie  and 
seasonable  worke.  We  intend,  God  willing,  to  take  that  very  daye,  solemnly 
to  renew  our  covenant  in  our  church  state,  according  to  the  example  in  Ezra's 
time,  and  as  was  sometimes  practised  in  Hartford  congregation  by  Mr.  Stone, 
not  long  after  Mr.  Hooker's  death.  If  other  churches  doe  not  see  cause  to 
doe  the  same,  yet  wee  hope  it  will  not  bee  offensive ;  but  doe  verily  conclude 
if  y  be  rule  for  y  practise,  this  is  a  time  wherein  the  Providence  of  God  does 
in  a  knocking  and  terrible  manner  call  for  it." 

The  covenant  evinces  the  same  spirit,  and  to  some  extent  it  employs  the 
same  phrases  as  this  letter.  After  a  general  recognition  of  the  displeasure  of 
God,  as  displayed  "by  blasting  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and  cutting  off  the 
lives  of  many  by  the  sword,  laying  waste  some  plantations  and  threatening 
ruin  to  the  whole,"  the  covenant  is  renewed  in  seven  particulars,  which  may 
be  condensed  as  follows : 


30  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

1.  All  the  males  who  are  eight  or  nine  years  of  age  shall  be  presented 
before  the  Lord  in  his  congregation  every  Lord's  day  to  be  catechised,  until 
they  be  about  thirteen  in  age. 

2.  Those  who  are  about  thirteen  years  of  age,  both  male  and  female, 
shall  frequent  the  meetings  appointed  in  private  for  their  instruction,  while 
they  continue  under  family  government  or  until  they  are  received  to  full 
communion  in  the  church. 

3.  Adults  who  do  not  endeavor  to  take  hold  of  the  covenant  shall  be 
excommunicated. 

4.  Brethren  shall  be  appointed  to  admonish  those  parents  who  are  negli- 
gent of  their  children. 

5.  The  Lord's  supper  shall  be  celebrated  once  in  every  six  weeks. 

6.  Erring  brethren  are  to  be  rebuked. 

7.  Finally,  "seeing  we  feel  by  woful  experience  how  prone  we  are  soon 
to  forget  the  works  of  the  Lord,  and  our  own  vows ;  we  do  agree  and  deter- 
mine, that  this  writing  or  contents  of  it,  shall  be  once  in  every  year  read  in 
a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  before  the  Lord,  and  his  congregation ;  and  shall 
leave  it  with  our  children,  that  they  do  the  same  in  their  solemn  days  of 
mourning  before  the  Lord,  that  they  may  never  forget  how  their  fathers, 
ready  to  perish  in  a  strange  land,  and  with  sore  grief  and  trembling  of  heart, 
and  yet  hope  in  the  tender  mercy,  and  good  will  of  him,  who  dwelt  in  the 
burning  bush,  did  thus  solemnly  renew  their  covenant  with  God :  and  that 
our  children  after  us,  may  not  provoke  the  Lord  and  be  cast  off  as  a  degen- 
erate ofif-spring,  but  may  tremble  at  the  commandment  of  God,  and  learn  to 
place  their  hope  in  him,  who  although  he  hath  given  us  a  cup  of  astonish- 
ment to  drink,  yet  will  display  his  banner  over  them,  who  fear  him. 

Speaking  of  the  religious  awakening  that  took  place  in  New  London 
county  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Rev.  Mr.  Northrop  says : 

The  awakening  took  deep  root  in  New  London  county,  where  the 
Separatist  movement  was  pronounced,  and  the  knell  of  dis-establishment 
began  to  be  sounded.  .  .  .  New  religious  ideas  come  in,  and  the  estab- 
lished Congregational  Church  of  Connecticut  undergoes  dissolution  and  gives 
place  to  the  rights  of  free  worship.  And  with  the  freer  and  wider  thinking 
begins  a  better  thought  of  the  outside  world.  Some  of  the  most  fruitful  be- 
ginnings of  the  great  modern  missionary  movement  had  their  origin  right 
here  on  this  soil,  and  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  New  London  county  has 
the  distinction  of  having  given  more  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world  than 
any  other  county  in  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION 

Education  Recognized  as  a  First  Necessity— First  Free  School — Other  Schocis  and 
Early  Teachers— Contrasts  Between  the  Old  and  New  SystJms  of  Education— The 
Norwich  Tests — School  Legislation — Provision  for  the  Indians. 

In  view  of  the  great  importance  of  education  in  the  cievelopment  of  New 
England  as  a  whole,  no  less  in  our  county  than  elsewhere,  we  interrupt  our 
narrative  history  to  insert  a  review  of  educational  progress  in  New  London 
county.  In  order  that  we  may  discuss  this  subject  in  a  broad  sense,  we  prefix 
a  brief  definition  of  education  from  the  standpoint  of  history. 

Education  is  the  process  by  which  an  individual  comes  into  possession 
of  some  part  of  human  progress  and  thus  fits  himself  to  take  part  in  the  life 
of  his  own  generation.  This  process,  in  a  normal  person,  is  taking  place  most 
of  the  time  from  birth  to  death. 

We  are  all  creatures  of  the  past ;  in  physical  appearance,  in  traits  of  body 
and  mind,  in  desires,  and  in  powers,  we  are  the  "heirs  of  all  the  ages"  of 
human  evolution.  As  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  man  has  improved 
from  his  original  condition,  we  may  fairly  say  that  the  inheritance  of  each 
generation  from  the  preceding  one  has  steadily  increased  in  value  as  human 
experience  has  covered  new  fields  of  action.  Each  generation  progresses, 
first  by  acquiring  the  gains  of  former  generations,  then  by  new  experiences 
of  its  own. 

Somewhat  after  the  beginning  of  written  language  the  accumulation  of 
records  of  the  past  became  so  great  that  specially  trained  men  were  needed 
to  preserve  and  interpret  these  records.  And  so  great  has  been  the  increase 
in  the  amount  and  complexity  of  human  progress,  that  great  institutions  have 
arisen  to  secure  for  humanity  the  perpetual  possession  of  its  most  valuable 
gains. 

These  gains  may  be  grouped  under  two  heads :  first,  gains  in  aims ; 
secondly,  gains  in  powers.  Under  these  two  topics  may  be  grouped,  I  be- 
lieve, all  the  progress  of  every  epoch  of  history  as  well  as  that  of  every 
individual  in  any  epoch.  Let  us  then  briefly  subdivide  human  aims  and 
human  powers. 

In  so  far  as  man's  aims  are  affected  by  a  belief  in  the  supernatural,  we 
group  them  under  the  name  of  Religion.  In  so  far  as  his  aims  affect  his 
dealings  with  his  fellow  men  we  may  group  them  under  the  head  of  Morality. 
The  moral  code  has  on  the  one  side  the  sanction  of  the  institution  of  Religion, 
and  on  the  other  side  the  support  of  the  institution  of  Government. 

Human  powers  may  be  subdivided  into  knowledge,  or  power  in  under- 
standing; efficiency,  or  power  in  action;  emotion,  or  power  to  feel  and  ap- 
preciate. It  is  evident  then  that  the  great  institutions  of  mankind  exist  for 
the  purpose  of  educating  man  in  these  aims  and  powers.     The  progress  of 


32  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

humanity  is  the  aggregate  gain  of  individuals  in  spiritual  inspiration,  in 
moral  desires,  in  respect  for  law,  in  power  to  enjoy  what  is  best,  in  sym- 
pathy for  others,  in  the  virtues  and  habits  that  promote  efficiency,  in  the 
understanding  necessary  to  direct  one's  efforts  intelligently. 

The  School  is  that  institution  which  exists  primarily  for  the  distribution 
of  knowledge.  Now  the  mass  of  human  knowledge  has  become  so  great  that 
no  one  can  hope  to  put  into  practice  more  than  a  very  small  part  of  it.  It  is 
necessary  therefore  that  the  individual  choose  a  time  when  he  will  begin  to 
put  his  attention  on  the  details  of  his  life  work  rather  than  on  the  broader 
understanding  of  human  progress.  This  point  of  time  marks  the  division 
between  his  liberal  culture  and  his  technical  training. 

When  shall  technical  training  begin?  No  one  knows.  The  answer  will 
vary  with  the  individual's  powers  and  opportunities.  It  is  fair  to  say  that 
liberal  culture  should  be  prolonged  until  its  further  continuance  would  inter- 
fere with  the  technical  efficiency  of  the  individual. 

But  even  technical  information  will  be  of  little  use  to  an  individual  unless 
he  has  the  personal  virtues  that  make  him  efficient.  Strength  of  will,  tact, 
good  habits,  and  many  other  qualities,  are  to  be  ranked  even  higher  than 
understanding.  In  modern  times,  therefore,  the  school  has  become  in  minia- 
ture a  world  of  itself,  in  which  the  right  minded  pupil  may  learn  lessons  of 
morality,  lessons  of  personal  power,  as  well  as  lessons  in  understanding  and 
appreciation. 

Besides  the  four  great  institutions  there  are  other  tremendous  forces  at 
work  moulding  the  lives  of  individuals  and  communities ;  Literature,  Paint> 
ing,  Music,  the  Press,  and  too  many  other  forces  to  mention  have  today  a 
greater  influence  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

A  full  definition  of  education,  then,  in  its  broadest  sense,  would  be  some- 
thing like  this : — Education  is  the  process  whereby  the  individual,  through 
the  Home,  the  Church,  the  State,  the  School,  and  through  all  the  remainder 
of  his  environment,  learns  his  own  noblest  capabilities,  learns  to  obey  moral 
law,  gains  power  to  do,  and  understanding  to  direct  that  power. 

In  treating  those  facts  which  it  is  most  advisable  that  a  man  entering 
into  life  should  accurately  know,  Ruskin  says: 

I  believe  that  he  ought  to  know  three  things :  First,  Where  he  is ;  sec- 
ondly. Where  he  is  going;  thirdly.  What  he  had  best  do,  under  those  cir- 
cumstances. 

First:  Where  he  is. — That  is  to  say,  what  sort  of  a  world  he  has  got  into; 
how  large  it  is ;  what  kind  of  creatures  live  in  it,  and  how ;  what  it  is  made 
of,  and  what  may  be  made  of  it. 

Secondly :  Where  he  is  going. — That  is  to  say,  what  chances  or  reports 
there  are  of  any  other  world  besides  this;  what  seems  to  be  the  nature  of 
that  other  world.     . 

Thirdly:  What  he  had  best  do  under  the  circumstances. — That  is  to  say, 
what  kind  of  faculties  he  possesses ;  what  are  the  present  state  and  wants  of 
mankind;  what  is  his  place  in  society;  and  what  are  the  readiest  means  in 
his  power  of  attaining  happiness  and  diffusing  it.  The  man  who  knows  these 
things,  and  who  has  had  his  will  so  subdued  in  the  learning  them,  that  he 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  33 

is  ready  to  do  what  he  knows  he  ought,  I  should  call  educated ;  and  the  man 
who  knows  them  not,  uneducated — though  he  could  talk  all  the  tongues  of 
Babel. 

The  men  who  settled  Connecticut  believed  that  every  one  should  be  able 
to  read  the  word  of  God.  Every  church  therefore  had  its  teacher  as  well 
as  its  preacher.  In  advance  of  any  Colonial  legislation  relating  to  common 
schools,  almost  every  settlement  had  its  teacher  for  part  of  the  year  at  the 
most.  The  first  laws  did  little  more  than  guarantee  the  practice  common 
in  most  towns.  The  settlers  realized  that  the  system  of  government  dimly 
outlined  in  the  "Mayflower  Compact"  of  1619,  expanded  in  the  Fundamental 
Orders  of  1639,  which  to  us  of  today  stands  forth  as  the  "first  written  con- 
stitution known  to  history"  and  the  foundation  for  republican  form  of  gov- 
ernment, made  universal  education  essential  to  self-preservation. 

Connecticut  was  the  first  State  in  the  Union  to  set  apart  and  establish 
a  fund  for  the  support  of  common  schools.  This  was  done  after  the  sale 
of  the  "Western  Reserve"  lands  in  1795  for  $1,200,000.  By  the  Constitution 
of  1818,  Article  8,  Par.  2,  this  fund  is  forever  set  apart  for  public  schools: 

§  2  The  fund,  called  the  "School  Fund,"  shall  remain  a  perpetual  fund, 
the  interest  of  which  shall  be  inviolably  appropriated  to  the  support  and 
encouragement  of  the  public  or  common  schools  throughout  the  state,  and 
for  the  equal  benefit  of  all  the  people  thereof.  The  value  and  amount  of  said 
fund  shall,  as  soon  as  practicable,  be  ascertained  in  such  manner  as  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  may  prescribe,  published  and  recorded  in  the  Comptroller's 
office ;  and  no  law  shall  ever  be  made  authorizing  said  fund  to  be  diverted 
to  any  other  use  than  the  encouragement  and  support  of  public  or  common 
schools,  among  the  several  school  societies,  as  justice  and  equity  shall  require. 

The  first  law  relating  to  common  schools  in  Connecticut  was  enacted 
by  the  town  of  New  Haven  in  1641,  and  provided  for  a  free  school  to  be  sup- 
ported out  of  "the  Common  Stock."  The  next  law  was  passed  in  Hartford 
in  1643.  providing  a  free  school  for  the  poor  children,  with  tuition  charge  for 
those  able  to  pay.  In  1646  a  compilation  of  laws  of  the  colony  shows  that 
every  township  of  fifty  families  should  maintain  a  school,  and  any  town  of 
one  hundred  families  a  grammar  school.  After  the  union  of  New  Haven 
and  Connecticut  under  the  charter  of  1662,  many  acts  were  passed  relating 
to  common  schools.  In  1700,  every  town  of  seventy  families  was  required 
to  maintain  constantly  a  schoolmaster  able  to  teach  reading  and  writing. 
Towns  of  smaller  size  had  to  keep  a  school  half  the  year.  A  grammar  school 
was  required  in  every  shire  town.  The  rate  for  school  expenses  was  fixed 
at  a  minimum  of  forty  shillings  for  every  1,000  in  the  county  lists,  and,  if 
insufficient,  was  to  be  further  secured  by  joint  levy  on  inhabitants  and  parents 
of  children.  School  committees,  as  distinct  from  other  town  officers,  are 
first  mentioned  in  1708. 

Parishes  were  recognized  as  school  districts,  though  under  general  control 
of  the  towns.  The  close  connection  between  churches  and  schools  was  pos- 
sible because  the  population  was  homogeneous.  But  gradually  came  about 
N.L.— 1-3 


34  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

a  system  of  the  separation  of  the  church  and  school.  By  1798,  schools  were 
managed  by  themselves  as  school  societies  or  districts.  The  gradual  return 
to  town  management  by  the  consolidation  of  school  districts  followed  the 
change  of  school  laws  in  1856.  The  types  of  schools  of  course  changed  as 
school  laws  became  better  adjusted  to  the  needs  of  growing  communities. 
In  the  various  communities  grew  up  private  schools  alongside  the  common 
elementary  school.  As  types  of  such  schools  may  be  mentioned  those  de- 
scribed by  Miss  Caulkins  in  her  "History  of  Norwich" : 

The  schools  in  Norwich  were  neither  intermitted  or  neglected  during 
the  Revolutionary  War.  An  institution  of  higher  grade  than  elementary 
was  sustained  in  the  town-plot  through  all  the  distractions  of  the  country. 
It  called  in  many  boarders  from  abroad,  and  at  one  period,  with  Mr.  Goodrich 
for  its  principal,  acquired  considerable  popularity.  This  school  is  endorsed 
by  its  committee,  Andrew  Huntington  and  Dudley  Woodbridge,  in  1783,  as 
furnishing  instruction  to  "young  gentlemen  and  ladies,  lads  and  misses,  in 
every  branch  of  literature,  viz..  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  the  learned  lan- 
guages, logic,  geography,  mathematics,"  &c.     Charles  White,   teacher. 

The  exhibitions  of  the  school  were  commonly  enlivened  with  scenic 
representations  and  interludes  of  music.  A  taste  for  such  entertainments 
was  prevalent.  The  young  people,  even  after  their  emancipation  from  schools, 
would  sometimes  take  part  in  theatrical  representations.  We  learn  from  the 
town  newspaper  that  in  February,  1792,  a  select  company  of  young  ladies 
and  gentlemen  performed  the  tragedj'  of  "Gustavus"  and  "The  Mistakes  of 
a  Night"  at  the  court-house. 

The  school-ma'am  of  former  times,  with  her  swarming  hive  of  pupils,  was 
an  institution  of  which  no  sample  remains  at  the  present  day.  She  was  a 
life-long  incumbent,  never  going  out  of  one  round  of  performance:  always 
teaching  little  girls  and  boys  to  sit  up  straight  and  treat  their  elders  with 
respect;  to  conquer  the  spelling-book,  repeat  the  catechism,  never  throw 
stones,  never  tell  a  lie;  the  boys  to  write  copies,  and  the  girls  to  work 
samplers.  If  they  sought  higher  education  than  this,  they  passed  out  of 
her  domain  into  finishing  schools.  Almost  every  neighborhood  had  its  school- 
ma'am,  and  the  memor}^  is  still  fresh  of  Miss  Sally  Smith  at  the  Landing,  and 
Miss  Molly  Grover  of  the  Town-plot. 

Dancing-schools  were  peculiarly  nomadic  in  their  character ;  the  instruc- 
tor (generally  a  Frenchman)  circulating  through  a  wide  district  and  giving 
lessons  for  a  few  weeks  at  particular  points.  Reels,  jigs  and  contra-dances 
were  most  in  vogue :  the  hornpipe  and  rigadoon  were  attempted  by  only  a 
select  few ;  cotillions  were  growing  in  favor ;  the  minuet  much  admired.  In 
October,  1787,  Griffith's  dancing-school  was  opened  at  the  house  of  Mrs. 
Billings  in  the  town-plot.  He  taught  five  different  minuets,  one  of  them  a 
duo,  and  another  a  cotillion-minuet.  His  lessons  were  given  in  the  morning, 
with  a  scholars'  ball  once  a  fortnight.  Ten  years  later,  J.  C.  Devereux  was 
a  popular  teacher  of  the  dance.  He  had  large  classes  for  several  seasons  at 
the  court-house,  and  at  Kinney's  hotel  in  Chelsea. 

In  1799,  a  school  for  young  ladies  was  opened  in  the  house  of  Major 
Whiting  upon  the  Little  Plain,  by  ^Irs.  Brooks,  who  devoted  herself  espe- 
cially to  feminine  accomplishments,  such  as  tambour,  embroidery,  painting 
in  water-colors,  instrumental  music,  and  the  French  language.  She  had  at 
first  a  large  number  of  pupils  from  this  and  the  neighboring  towns,  but  the 
attendance  soon  declined,  and  the  school  was  relinquished.  In  general  the 
young  ladies  at  such  schools  only  remained  long  enough  to  practice  a  few 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  35 

tunes  on  the  guitar,  to  tambour  a  muslin  shawl  and  apron,  or  embroider  a 
scripture  scene,  and  this  gave  the  finishing  stroke  to  their  education. 

It  was  common  then,  as  it  is  now,  for  parents  with  liberal  means  to  send 
both  their  sons  and  daughters  from  home  to  obtain  greater  educational  ad- 
vantages. Young  ladies  from  Norwich  often  went  to  Boston  to  finish  their 
education,  and  now  and  then  one  was  placed  under  the  guardian  care  and 
instruction  of  the  Moravian  sisterhood  in  their  seminary  at  Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania. 

In  1782  an  academical  association  was  formed  in  the  western  part  of 
the  town-plot,  consisting  of  forty-one  subscribers  and  one  hundred  shares 
of  rights.  The  old  meeting-house  of  the  Separatists  was  purchased  and  re- 
paired for  the  use  of  this  institution.  The  first  principal  was  Samuel  Austin, 
and  the  range  of  studies  included  Latin  and  Greek,  navigation  and  the  mathe- 
matics. Two  popular  school-books  then  just  issued  were  introduced  by 
Mr.  Austin  into  this  school — Webster's  "Grammatical  Institutes,"  and  "Geog- 
raphy Made  Easy,"  by  Jedidiah  Morse.  Mr.  Morse  was  himself  subsequently 
a  teacher  in  this  institution,  which  was  continued  with  varying  degrees  of 
prosperity  for  thirty  j^ears  or  more.  Alexander  Macdonald,  author  of  a  school- 
book  called  "The  Youth's  Assistant,"  was  one  of  its  teachers.  He  died  May  4, 
1792,  aged  forty.  Newcomb  Kinne}-  was  at  one  time  the  principal,  and  had 
for  his  usher  John  Russ  of  Hartford,  afterward  member  of  Congress  from 
1819  to  1823.  In  1800,  Sebastian  C.  Cabot  was  the  chief  instructor.  This 
school  was  kept  in  operation  about  thirty  years.  After  it  ceased,  the  lower, 
part  of  the  building  was  occupied  by  the  public  school,  and  the  upper  part, 
being  suitably  prepared,  was  in  use  for  nearly  twenty  years  as  a  Methodist 
chapel. 

Dr.  Daniel  Lathrop,  who  died  in  1782,  left  a  legacy  of  £500  to  the  town 
for  the  support  of  a  free  grammar  school,  upon  certain  conditions,  one  of 
which  was  that  the  school  should  be  kept  during  eleven  months  of  each  year. 
A  school  upon  this  foundation  was  opened  in  1787,  and  continued  for  about 
fifty  years.  The  brick  school-house  upon  the  green  was  built  for  its  accom- 
modation. Its  first  teacher  was  Ebenezer  Punderson.  But  the  most  noted 
of  its  preceptors  and  the  one  who  longest  held  his  place  was  Mr.  William 
Baldwin,  an  excellent  instructor,  faithful  and  apt  to  teach,  but  a  rigid  dis- 
ciplinarian, and  consequently  more  respected  than  beloved  by  his  pupils,  until 
after-life  led  them  to  reverse  the  decisions  of  earlier  days.  The  young  have 
seldom  judgment  and  generosity  sufficient  to  make  them  love  those  who 
control  them  for  their  good. 

In  1843  the  Lathrop  donation  was  relinquished,  with  the  consent  of  the 
legislature,  to  the  heirs-at-law  of  Thomas  Coit,  a  nephew  of  Dr.  Lathrop,  to 
whom  by  the  provision  of  the  testator's  will  it  was  in  such  case  to  revert. 
The  investment  had  depreciated  in  value,  and  the  restrictions  with  which 
the  legacy  was  incumbered  made  it,  in  the  advanced  state  of  educational 
institutions,  more  of  a  hindrance  than  a  help.  The  school  had  been  for  many 
years  a  great  advantage  to  the  town,  but  having  accomplished  its  mission, 
it  quietly  ceased  to  be. 

Evening  schools  of  short  duration,  devoted  to  some  special  study,  were 
not  uncommon.  The  object  was  usually  of  a  practical  nature,  and  the  stu- 
dents above  childhood.  The  evening  school  of  Consider  Sterry,  in  1798, 
covered,  according  to  his  program,  the  following  range  of  instruction:  "Book- 
keeping in  the  Italian.  American  and  English  methods,  mathematics,  sur- 
veying and  plotting  of  lands;  price  is.  6d.  per  week.  Navigation  and  the 
method  of  finding  longitude  by  lunar  observations  and  latitude  by  the  sun's 
altitude,  one  dollar  for  the  complete  knowledge." 


36  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Few  men  are  g'ifted  by  nature  with  such  an  aptitude  for  scientific  research 
as  Consider  Sterry.  His  attainments  were  all  self-acquired  under  great  dis- 
advantages. Besides  a  work  on  lunar  observations,  he  and  his  brother  pre- 
pared an  arithmetic  for  schools,  and  in  company  with  Nathan  Daboll,  an- 
other self-taught  scientific  genius,  he  arranged  and  edited  a  system  of  prac- 
tical navigation,  entitled  "The  Seaman's  Universal  Daily  Assistant,"  a  work 
of  nearly  three  hundred  pages.  He  also  published  several  small  treatises, 
wrote  political  articles  for  the  papers,  and  took  a  profound  interest  in  free- 
masonry. 

In  June,  1800,  a  school  was  inaugurated  at  the  brick  house  on  the  Little 
Plain,  with  Mr.  William  Woodbridge  for  the  principal.  The  assembly  room 
was  fitted  up  with  desks  and  benches  for  an  academical  hall ;  both  sexes  were 
admitted,  and  the  whole  was  under  the  supervision  of  a  board  of  four  citi- 
zens— Joseph  Howland,  Samuel  Woodbridge,  Thomas  Fanning,  Thomas 
Lathrop.  But  the  situation  was  too  remote  from  the  centers  of  population, 
and  after  a  trial  of  two  or  three  years  this  school  was  relinquished  for  want 
of  patronage 

A  select  school  for  young  persons  of  both  sexes  was  long  sustained  in 
the  town-plot,  but  with  varying  tides  of  prosperity  and  decline.  After  a  void 
of  two  or  three  years,  it  was  revived  in  1803  by  Pelatiah  Perit,  who  had  just 
then  graduated  from  Yale  College,  and  was  only  eighteen  years  of  age.  Lydia 
Huntley,  afterwards  Mrs.  Sigourney,  was  one  of  his  pupils. 

Among  other  teachers  of  the  town-plot,  who  were  subesquently  hon- 
orable and  noted  in  their  several  callings,  the  following  are  well  remembered : 
Daniel  Haskell,  president  of  the  Vermont  University;  Henry  Strong,  LL.D., 
eminent  in  the  law ;  John  Hyde,  judge  of  countj^  court,  judge  of  probate,  etc. ; 
Dr.  Peter  Allen,  a  physician  in  Ohio ;  Rev.  Joshua  L.  Williams,  of  Middle- 
town  ;  J.  Bates  Murdock,  afterwards  an  officer  of  the  Second  War  with  Great 
Britain ;  Phineas  L.  Tracy,  who  from  1827  to  1833  was  Member  of  Congress 
from  Genesee  county.  New  York. 

A  proprietary  school  was  established  at  the  Landing  in  1797,  by  twenty- 
seven  heads  of  families.  The  school-house  was  built  on  the  slope  of  the  hill 
above  Church  street,  and  the  school  was  assembled  and  organized  by  the 
Rev.  Walter  King.  David  L.  Dodge  was  the  first  regular  teacher.  In  1802, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Williams  was  the  preceptor.  He  was  noted  for  his  assiduous 
attention  to  the  health  and  morals  as  well  as  the  studies  of  his  pupils.  He 
drilled  them  thoroughly  in  the  "Assem.bl-'s  Catechism,"  anl  used  with  his 
younger  classes  a  favorite  manual  called  "The  Catechism  of  Nature."  Other 
teachers  of  this  school  were  Mr.  Scarborough,  Ebenezer  W^itter,  John  Lord 
(president  of  Dartmouth  College),  George  Hill,  and  others.  But  no  one 
retained  the  office  for  so  long  a  term  as  Dyar  T.  Hinckley,  of  Windham,  k 
man  of  earnest  zeal  in  his  profession,  who  was  master  of  desk  and  bench  in 
Norwich  for  twenty  years  or  more,  yet  never  removed  his  family  or  obtained 
a  regular  home  in  the  place.  He  was  a  schoolmaster  of  the  old  New  Eng- 
land type,  devoted  to  his  profession  as  an  ulterior  pursuit,  and  expending 
his  best  energies  in  the  performance  of  its  duties. 

Schools  at  that  period  consisted  uniformly  of  two  sessions  a  day,  of 
three  hours  each,  with  a  half-holiday  on  Saturday.  Mr.  Hinckley,  in  addition 
to  this,  had  sometimes  an  evening  or  morning  school,  or  both,  of  two  hours 
each,  for  pupils  not  belonging  to  the  day-school.  The  morning  hours  were 
devoted  to  young  ladies,  and  from  an  advertisement  of  May,  1816,  giving  notice 
of  a  new  term,  we  ascertain  the  precise  time  when  the  class  assembled: 
"Hours  from  5  o'clock  to  7  A.  M."  Let  no  one  hastily  assume  that  this  early 
summons  would  be  neglected.     Living  witnesses  remain  to  testify  that  it 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  37 

drew  a  goodly  number  of  young;  aspirants  who  came  out,  fresh  and  vigorous, 
at  sunrise  or  a  little  later,  to  pursue  their  studies. 

Another  institution  that  made  its  mark  upon  society  was  the  Chelsea 
Grammar  School,  organized  in  1806,  but  not  incorporated  till  1821,  when  it 
was  impowered  to  hold  real  estate  to  the  value  of  $20,000.  The  school-house 
was  on  the  side-hill  opposite  the  Little  Park,  in  Union  street.  This  institution 
continued  in  operation,  with  some  vacant  intervals,  about  forty  years,  secur- 
ing for  its  patrons  the  benefits  of  an  academical  education  for  their  children 
without  sending  them  home.  Many  prominent  citizens  of  Norwich  here 
received  their  first  introduction  to  the  classics,  the  sons  in  numerous  instances 
taking  possession  of  seats  once  occupied  by  their  fathers. 

No  complete  list  of  the  preceptors  has  been  obtained ;  but  among  the 
remembered  names  are  several  that  have  since  been  distinguished  in  literary 
and  professional  pursuits — Dr.  Jonathan  Knight,  of  New  Haven ;  Charles 
Griswold,  of  Lyme ;  Jonathan  Barnes,  Wyllis  Warner,  Roswell  C.  Smith, 
Rev.  Horace  Bushnell,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  William  Adams,  D.D.  These  men  were 
all  young  at  the  time.  The  preceptors  of  most  schools,  here  and  elsewhere, 
at  that  period,  were  college  graduates,  accepting  the  office  for  a  year,  or  at 
most  for  two  or  three  years,  between  taking  their  degree  and  entering  upon 
some  other  profession.  But  teachers  to  whom  the  vocation  is  but  a  stepping- 
stone  to  something  beyond  on  which  the  mind  is  fixed,  however  faithful  and 
earnest  in  their  present  duties,  can  never  raise  an  institution  to  any  per- 
manent standard  of  excellence.  It  is  well  therefore  that  these  temporary 
undertakings  should  give  way  to  public  schools  more  thoroughly  system- 
atized and  conducted  by  persons  who  make  teaching  a  profession. 

In  Chelsea,  beginning  about  1825,  a  series  of  expedients  for  enlarging 
the  bounds  of  knowledge  afiford  pleasing  evidence  of  the  gradual  expansion 
of  intellect  and  enterprise.  A  lyceum,  a  circulating  library,  a  reading  club, 
a  society  for  mutual  improvement,  and  a  mechanics'  association,  were  suc- 
cessively started,  and  though  most  of  them  were  of  brief  duration,  they  were 
cheering  tokens  of  an  advance  in  the  right  path. 

The  Norwich  Female  Academy  was  incorporated  in  1828.  This  insti- 
tution was  greatly  indebted  for  its  origin  to  the  persevering  exertion  of 
Mr.  Thomas  Robinson,  who  was  the  principal  agent  of  the  corporation.  The 
brick  hall  erected  for  its  accommodation  stood  on  the  hill  facing  the  river, 
higher  than  any  other  building  then  on  the  declivity.  Neither  cciurt-house 
nor  jail  had  gained  a  foothold  on  the  height,  which  was  well  forested,  and 
toward  the  north  surmounted  by  a  fine  prospect  station,  overtopping  the 
woods,  and  known  as  Rockwell's  Tower.  The  academy  had  the  rugged  hill 
for  its  background,  but  on  other  sides  the  view  was  varied  and  extensive; 
and  when  at  recess  the  fair  young  pupils  spread  in  joyous  freedom  over  the 
height,  often  returning  with  wild  flowers  and  oak-leaf  garlands  from  the 
neighboring  groves,  neither  poetry  nor  romance  could  exaggerate  the  interest 
of  the  scene. 

The  most  prosperous  year  of  this  academy  was  1833,  when  the  number 
of  pupils  amounted  to  nearly  ninety,  many  of  them  boarders  from  other 
places.  But  the  exposed  situation  of  the  building,  and  the  rough,  steep  ascent 
by  which  only  it  could  be  reached,  were  adverse  to  the  prosperity  of  a  female 
academy,  and  it  soon  became  extinct — disbanded  by  wintry  blasts  and  icy 
foot-paths. 

In  her  "History  of  New  London,"  Miss  Caulkins  thus  covers  the  early 
history  of  public  education  in  New  London : 

The  town  school  located  on  this  spot  was  the  free  grammar-school,  which 


38  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

had  for  its  main  support  the  Bartlet  and  other  public  revenues,  and  had  been 
originally  established  further  up  the  hill,  on  Hempstead  street,  but  had 
descended  from  thence  about  1750.  It  was  now  removed  a  few  rods  to  the 
north,  and  placed  in  the  highway  fronting  the  Erving  lot  (Church  street  in 
that  part  not  having  been  opened),  with  no  wall  or  inclosure  around  it, 
these  not  being  deemed  at  that  time  necessary.  The  dwelling  houses  in  this 
part  of  the  town  were  few,  and  the  neighboring  hills  and  fields  were  the  play 
ground  of  the  boys.  In  the  rear  was  the  Hallam  lot,  extending  from  Broad 
street  to  the  old  meeting-house  square,  with  but  one  building  upon  it,  and 
that  in  its  north-east  corner.  A  little  more  distant,  in  the  rear  of  the  court- 
house, was  the  Coit  "hollow-lot,"  shaded  by  large  trees,  and  enriched  with 
a  rivulet  of  pure  water  (where  Cottage  street  now  runs).  Still  further  back 
was  a  vacant  upland  lot  (known  as  Fosdick's  or  Melally's  lot),  containing 
here  and  there  a  choice  apple-tree,  well  known  to  schoolboys;  this  is  now 
the  second  burial  ground. 

We  have  heard  aged  people  revert  to  these  scenes,  the  days  when  they 
were  pupils  of  the  free  grammar-school,  under  the  sway  of  "Master  Owen"; 
when  a  house  of  worship  had  not  given  name  and  beauty  to  Zion's  Hill, 
and  only  a  cellar  and  a  garden,  tokens  of  former  residence  of  one  of  the 
early  settlers  of  the  town,  were  to  be  seen  on  the  spot  where  the  Trott  man- 
sion now  stands.  (This  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  place  where  stood  the 
house  on  Charles  Hill,  fortified  in  the  time  of  the  Indian  war.  The  present 
house  was  built  by  Samuel  Fosdick,  at  the  head  of  Niantic  river,  but  taken 
apart,  brought  into  town,  and  erected  in  1786.  It  has  been  occupied  by  J-  P- 
Trott,  its  present  owner,  more  than  half  a  century.)  Later  than  this  (about 
1796)  General  Huntington  broke  ground  upon  the  hillside  and  erected  his 
house  (now  Hurlbutt's),  in  the  style  called  cottage  ornee.  Beyond  this,  on 
the  present  Coit  property,  was  a  gushing  spring,  where  the  eager  schoolboy 
slaked  his  thirst  and  cooled  his  heated  brow ;  and  not  a  quarter  of  a  century 
has  elapsed  since  the  space  now  occupied  by  the  Williams  mansion  and 
grounds  was  an  open,  irregular  hillside  over  whose  rugged  surface  troops 
of  children,  as  they  issued  from  the  school-room,  were  seen  to  scatter  in 
their  various  sports,  like  flocks  of  sheep  spreading  over  the  hills. 

In  the  year  1795,  the  old  school-house,  a  low,  red  building  of  one  room, 
with  a  garret  above,  entered  by  a  flight  of  stairs  and  a  trap  door,  where 
refractory  pupils  were  committed  for  punishment ;  and  with  desks  and  benches, 
which,  though  made  of  solid  oak,  were  desperately  marred  by  ink  and  knife ; 
was  abandoned,  and  the  school  removed  to  a  larger  building  of  brick,  erected 
for  its  accommodation  in  the  highway,  south  of  the  court  house,  where  it 
fulfilled  another  period  of  its  history,  of  nearly  forty  years.  Here  the  chair 
of  instruction,  or  more  properly  the  throne  (for  the  government  was  despotic), 
was  occupied  after  1800  by  Dr.  Dow,  the  number  of  whose  subjects  usually 
amounted  to  about  150,  though  sometimes  rising  to  200. 

In  1833,  a  new  and  much  superior  edifice  was  erected  for  the  grammar 
school  on  a  lot  south  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church,  chiefly  through 
the  exertion  and  liberality  of  Joseph  Hurlbut,  to  whom  a  vote  of  thanks  was 
rendered  by  the  town,  October  9th,  1833.  In  this  building  the  Bartlet  or 
grammar  school  is  still  continued  under  the  care  of  the  town,  but  the  fund 
is  inadequate  to  its  support  and  the  pupils  are  taxed  to  supply  the  deficiency. 

The  most  noted  teachers  of  this  school  since  1750,  those  whose  office 
covered  the  longest  term  of  years,  were  John  Owen  (the  remains  of  "Master 
Owen,"  were  laid  in  the  second  burial  ground,  but  no  memorial  stone  marks 
the  spot.  If  a  sufficient  number  of  his  old  pupils  are  yet  upon  the  stage  of 
life  to  undertake  the  charge,  it  would  be  a  creditable  enterprise  for  them 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  39 

to  unite  and  raise  some  simple  but  fitting  monument  to  his  memory.  He 
was  for  many  years  both  town  and  city  clerk) — and  Ulysses  Dow ;  both  were 
peculiar  characters,  and  each  remained  in  office  nearly  forty  years.  The 
former  died  in  1801,  aged  sixty-five;  the  latter  in  1844,  aged  seventy-eight. 
The  Union  School  was  an  establishment  incorporated  by  the  General 
Assembly  in  October,  1774.  The  petition  for  the  act  was  signed  by  twelve 
proprietors,  who  state  that  they  had  "built  a  commodious  school  house,  and 
for  several  years  past  hired  and  sup])orted  a  school-master."  The  original 
proprietors  were  Richard  Law,  Jeremiah  Miller,  Duncan  Stewart,  Silas  Church, 
Thomas  Allen,  John  Richards,  Robinson  Mumford,  Joseph  Cristophers,  Mar- 
vin Wait,  Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jr.,  Roger  Gibson,  Thomas  Mumford. 

This  school  was  intended  to  furnish  facilities  for  a  thorough  English 
education  and  the  classical  preparation  necessary  for  entering  college.  The 
school-house  stood  on  State  street,  and  by  the  subsequent  opening  of  Union 
street  was  made  a  corner  lot.  This  was  a  noted  school  in  its  early  days, 
yielding  a  larger  income  than  ordinary  schools,  and  the  station  of  preceptor 
was  regarded  as  a  post  of  honor.  It  has  been  heretofore  stated  that  Nathan 
Hale  held  that  office  in  1775,  and  that  he  left  the  school  to  enter  the  army. 
He  was  the  first  preceptor  after  the  act  of  incorporation.  A  few  only  of  his 
successors  can  be  named.  Seth  Williston,  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  College 
and  since  known  as  a  divine  of  considerable  eminence,  was  in  charge  for 
two  years.  Jacob  B.  Gurley,  from  the  same  seminary,  succeeded  Williston 
in  May,  1794,  and  was  the  principal  for  three  years.  (Mr.  Gurley  is  a  native 
of  Mansfield,  Connecticut,  but  since  1794  a  resident  of  New  London,  where 
he  began  to  practice  as  an  attorney  in  1797.)  Ebenezer  Learned,  a  native 
of  the  town,  and  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  filled  the  chair  of  instruction 
in  1799.  Knight,  of  the  Medical  College  of  New  Haven,  Olmstead  of  Yale, 
Mitchell  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  and  many  other  names  of  note, 
are  among  the  teachers  after  1800. 

The  school  house  was  taken  down  and  the  land  sold  after  1830,  and  in 
1833  a  reorganization  took  place,  a  new  charter  was  obtained,  and  a  brick 
school  house  flourished  for  a  few  years,  but  could  not  be  long  sustained. 
The  Bartlet  and  common  schools  gathered  in  the  great  mass  of  pupils ;  the 
number  wishing  to  pursue  a  more  extensive  system  of  education  was  small, 
and  the  Union  School,  an  old  and  venerated  establishment,  was  discontinued. 
In  1851  the  building  was  sold  to  the  Bethel  Society,  by  whom  it  has  been 
converted  into  a  commodious  house  of  worship. 

No  provision  seems  to  have  been  made  for  the  education  of  females  in 
anything  but  needle-work,  reading,  writing,  and  the  first  principles  of  arith- 
metic, until  the  year  1799.  A  female  academy  was  then  built  by  a  company 
of  proprietors,  in  Green  street,  and  incorporated  by  the  legislature.  It  con- 
tinued in  operation,  with  some  intervals  of  recess,  about  thirtj'  years.  The 
property  was  then  sold  and  the  company  dissolved  in  1834.  A  new  female 
academy  was  built  the  same  year  on  Broad  street,  and  the  system  of  instruc- 
tion commenced  by  Rev.  Daniel  Huntington.  This  institution  has  hitherto 
met  with  fair  encouragement.  Since  1841  it  has  been  in  charge  of  H.  P. 
Farnsworth,  principal.  The  pupils  are  arranged  in  two  departments,  and  for 
a  few  years  past  the  average  number  has  been  about  eighty. 

Private  schools  of  similar  nature  were  found  in  other  towns  of  the  county, 
and  will  be  mentioned  in  the  town  histories.  Higher  education  was  sought 
by  many  leading  men.  Miss  Caulkins  gives  a  list  of  eighty-six  names  of 
men  native  to  New  London  who  had  received  a  college  education  up  to  the 
year  1850.    A  similar  list  for  Norwich  may  be  found  in  the  "Norwich  Jubilee 


40  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Volume,"  and  includes  over  130  names.  Beginning  with  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  have  come  steady  advances  in  educational  methods  and 
equipment.  The  legislation  of  the  State  has  promoted  this  by  State  aid  and 
by  compulsory  school  laws.  To  describe  adequately  the  progress  made  in 
education  in  New  London  county  for  the  past  fifty  years  would  involve  a 
discussion  of  educational  progress  in  all  civilized  lands,  and  especially  in  the 
United  States.  The  laws  relating  to  the  schools  in  Connecticut  fill  over 
200  pages  of  printed  matter.  New  statutes  are  enacted  with  each  new  legis- 
lature. In  general,  it  must  sufifice  to  say  that  Connecticut  aims  to  keep  pace 
with  country-wide  educational  progress,  but  is  far  less  centralized  in  policy 
than  many  States.  Consequently  there  have  survived  in  our  county  an 
unusual  number  of  schools  that  are  the  products  of  local  initiative  rather 
than  of  State  patronage  or  State  control.  The  word  "Progress"  covers  the 
history  of  education  in  New  London  county  for  the  past  seventy-five  years. 
In  answer  to  some  people  who  feel  that  the  new  "frills"  have  been  brought 
into  our  grammar  schools  at  the  expense  of  the  "Three  R's,"  the  following 
paper  was  prepared  and  printed  in  the  "School  Review": 

THE  NORWICH  TESTS,  1862-1909 

In  spits  of  the  conclusive  evidence  of  the  well-known  "Springfield  tests"* 
of  four  years  ago,  one  still  hears  not  infrequently  a  lament  that  "the  good  old 
days"  are  gone.  It  may  not  be  amiss,  therefore,  for  me  to  submit  to  the 
readers  of  the  "School  Review"  a  brief  account  of  another  series  of  tests 
recently  given  in  a  Connecticut  community,  covering  a  period  of  about 
fifteen  years  later  than  that  covered  by  the  Massachusetts  inquiry. 

In  1906,  shortly  after  the  preliminary  report  of  the  Springfield  tests,  we 
decided  to  try  some  of  our  old  examination  papers  on  present-day  pupils  of 
Norwich,  Connnecticut.  An  arithmetic  paper  of  1856  was  set  before  an 
eighth-grade  division  of  the  Broadway  Grammar  School  of  this  city.  Since 
we  had  the  original  papers  of  fifty  years  ago,  we  were  able  to  make  an  exact 
comparison  of  results.  The  eighth-grade  pupils  of  1906  had  still  more  than 
a  year's  work  in  grammar  school  before  taking  our  regular  entrance  exam- 
inations.   The  results  were  as  follows: 

1856  1906 

Pupils  examined 73  27 

Members  attaining  icx)  per  cent 3  4 

Lowest    mark 40  per  cent  10  percent 

Average  mark 75  per  cent  88  per  cent 

Average   age ISJ4  '3/^ 

In  other  words,  the  pupils  of  1906  though  two  years  younger  than  the  pupils 
of  1856  did  much  better  work  on  the  very  examination  for  which  the  pupils 
of  1856  had  been  prepared.  A  result  so  surprising  led  us  to  doubt  our  own 
tests.  It  was  thought  that  possibly  the  division  of  pupils  of  1906  was  a 
picked  division,  or  that  possibly  the  school  did  not  represent  the  average 
of  our  grammar  schools ;  for.  still  retaining  the  antiquated  system  of  district 
management,  we  have  no  such  uniformity  of  grammar  school  work  as  is  found 
in  many  communities.  We  resolved  accordingly  to  make  another  test  that 
should  better  represent  our  whole  community  and  our  average  pupils.  We 
sent  out  to  three  of  our  largest  districts  papers  in  arithmetic,  geography, 
history,   and   grammar,   given   as   entrance   examinations    in    1862   and    1863. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  41 

These  examinations  were  given  in  February,  1909,  without  previous 
warning  or  preparation,  and  under  supervision  of  school  principals,  who,  in 
making  their  returns,  were  ignorant  of  the  results  of  1862-63,  ^^'^  likewise 
of  each  others  results.  It  was  declared  by  each  principal  independently  that 
his  own  pupils  would  have  done  much  better  if  the  tests  had  been  taken 
later  in  the  year,  after  reviews  had  been  completed.  The  papers  given  were 
as  follows : 


*  See  The  Springfield  Tests,  issued  by  the  Holden  Book  Cover  Co.,  Springfield,  Mass. 

ARITHMETIC 

1.  A  man  bought  a  house  for  $4,000,  and  paid  $250  for  repairs,  and  sold  it  so  as  to  gain 
lOj^  per  cent  on  his  investment.     For  how  much  did  he  sell  it? 

2.  How  much  is  3/4x2/3x7/9  divided  by  2/5x8/11x5/8. 

3.  Required,  the  simple  interest  on  $9036  for  3  years  6  months  12  days,  at  6  per  cent. 

4.  If  six  yards  of  cloth  cost  £4  I3.r.  what  will  11  yards  cost? 

5.  Find  the  amount  of  $304.56  for  four  years,  at  7  per  cent,  simple  interest. 

6.  Subtract  3x4  7/8  from  9x5  2/3. 

7.  WTiat  is  the  sum  of  5  1/2,  6  2/3.  and  7  1/4  in  decimal  numbers? 

8.  Reduce  0.425  to  a  vulgar  fraction  in  lowest  terms. 

9.  How  many  yards  of  carpeting  54  yard  wide  will  cover  a  floor  27  feet  long  and  16 
feet  wide? 

10.  A  load  of  hay  weighs  2,625  'bs.     What  is  it  worth  at  $15  per  ton? 

GEOGRAPHY 

1.  Where  is  Chicago  situated?     Cairo?     Memphis?     Pensacola?     Richmond? 

2.  Where  is  Pike's  Peak. 

3.  On  what  waters  would  you  sail  from  Norwich  to  Baltimore? 

4.  What  separates  the  Red  Sea  from  the  Mediterranean? 

5.  What  is  the  length  of  a  degree  of  longitude? 

6.  What  are  the  principal  ports  of  the  United  States,  south  of  Norfolk,  Virginia? 

7.  Name  the  principal  mountain  ranges  of  Europe. 

8.  Draw  a  map  of  Virginia. 

9.  Through  what  State  does  the  Connecticut  River  flow? 

10.  When  it  is  noon  at  Norwich,  what  time  is  it  15'  east  of  this  place? 

HISTORY 

1.  What  were  the  motives  which  induced  the  colonists  of  Virginia  and  of  New  England 
to  form   settlements  in  America? 

2.  What  did  Penn  make  the  basis  of  his  institutions? 

3.  What  was  the  cause  of  the  Revolutionary  War? 

4.  What  foreign  assistance  had  the  Americans  during  the  Revolution? 

5.  When  was  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  fought? 

6.  When  was  the  Constitution  adopted? 

7.  For   what   reasons   was   war  declared   by   the   United    States   against   Great    Britain 
in   1812? 

8.  In  whose   administration   was   Louisiana   annexed  to   the   United   States,  and   from 
whom   purchased? 

9.  What  was  the  Missouri  Compromise? 

10.  Which  of  the  States  is  called  the  Old  Dominion? 

GRAMMAR 

1.  Give  the  principal  parts  of  the  verb  to  love,  and  write  out  the  inflection  of  the  tenses 
of  the  indicative  mode. 

2.  Decline  John.  James,  and  men. 

3.  Write  a  sentence  concerning  General  Lyon,  which  shall  contain  a  relative  clause. 

4.  Is  the  following  sentence  correct?     If  not,  make  it  so:  "I  done  the  best  I  could." 

5.  "I  intended  to  have  been  there."     Is  this  sentence  correct?     If  not,  make  it  so. 

6.  In  the  following  stanza  parse  the  words  in  italics: 

The  muse,  disgusted  at  an  age.  and  clime  , 

Barren  of   every  glorious  theme. 
In  distant  lands  now  waits  a  better  time, 

Producing  subjects  worthy  fame. 


42  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

7.  Analyze  the  stanza. 

8.  Compare  Good,  bad,  little,  and  strong. 

g.  Give  the  principal  parts  of  go,  strike,  run,  rise,  and  sit. 
10.  Name  and  define  tenses. 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  the  fourth  question  of  the  arithmetic  paper  the 
table  of  English  money  is  involved.  Since  we  no  longer  require  this  in  our 
entrance  tests  it  is  not  usually  taught  in  our  grammar  schools.  Again  in 
the  eighth  question  the  term  "vulgar"  fraction  is  used,  a  term  superseded  by 
"common"  fraction  in  most  of  our  textbooks.  In  history  likewise  the  tenth 
question  involves  a  term  no  longer  taught  in  our  schools.  In  one  of  the 
schools  a  substitute  question  was  given  instead  of  the  fourth,  and  the  word 
"common"  instead  of  "vulgar."  No  suggestion  was  made,  however,  as  to 
the  tenth  question  in  history.  In  the  other  two  schools  no  comment  whatever 
was  made  on  any  of  the  questions,  and  many  pupils  registered  a  flat  failure 
on  questions  that  they  would  have  answered  if  worded  in  today's  terms.  The 
results  of  the  tests  may  be  tabulated  as  follows : 

School  I  II  HI  Total  Total 

1909  1862-63 

Number  31  25  35  9'  88 

Age   14  14  14  14  15 

Arithmetic    95%  90%  85%  90%  54% 

Geography    85%  80%  70%  78%  667o 

Historv'    77%  82%  71%  76^0  57% 

Grammar    85%  74%  75%  78%  63% 

Combined   Average 80%  60% 

I  cannot  say  that  the  results  were  at  all  surprising  in  view  of  the  previous 
tests  of  1906.  But  that  the  average  pupil  of  Norwich  grammar  schools  today, 
at  the  age  of  fourteen,  is  better  fitted  in  all  subjects  than  was  the  average 
pupil  of  fifteen  forty  odd  years  ago,  shows  most  clearly  that  modern  fads  have 
not  brought  with  them  a  loss  of  the  much-praised  disciplinary  studies  of 
former  times. 

Even  without  the  formal  tests,  a  comparison  of  the  old  examinations 
with  those  set  today  for  entrance  to  our  school  is  sufficient  to  show  the 
greater  advancement  of  modern  pupils.  I  do  not  submit  for  this  brief  sketch 
any  samples  of  bur  present  papers,  but  have  taken  pains  to  collect  such 
samples  from  a  number  of  the  best  high  schools  of  New  England.  In  every 
case  the  examinations  of  today  are  more  difficult  than  those  of  forty  or  fifty 
years  ago. 

But  someone  may  ask — as  Cicero  has  it — "Did  not  the  teachers  of  an 
earlier  day,  even  if  they  were  not  so  well  trained  or  so  skillful  as  those  of 
today,  did  they  not,  after  all,  succeed  in  giving  the  pupil  a  stimulus  to  effort, 
a  spirit  of  ambition,  that  modern  teachers  fail  to  give?  See  the  great  men 
that  have  come  from  those  schools." 

The  reply  must  be  that  only  time  can  tell  what  sort  of  men  will  come 
from  the  schools  of  today.  Doubtless  it  has  always  been  true,  and  always 
will  be  true,  that  men  of  great  natural  ability  and  energj'  will  rise  to  prom- 
inence, whether  schools  be  good  or  bad.  The  only  pertinent  question  is 
whether  the  greatness  of  our  leaders  of  today  can  be  traced  to  the  excellence 
of  their  grammar  school  training.  Have  we  any  evidence  that  their  teachers 
roused  them  to  power  of  thought? 

A  survey  of  the  entrance  records  of  those  alumni  of  this  school  who  have 
shown  great  intellectual  power  fails  to  suggest  any  such  power  at  the  end 
of  their  grammar  school  training.    A  few,  out  of  many,  examples  must  suffice 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  43 

for  illustration.  One  of  the  greatest  oriental  scholars  of  this  country  was 
able  to  secure  only  65  in  geography  and  62  in  grammar  on  such  examinations 
as  are  printed  above.  Another  alumnus,  who  stood  among  the  very  leaders 
of  his  college  class  and  has  risen  to  a  position  of  prominence  in  many  public 
affairs,  secured  marks  of  55  in  grammar,  fio  in  arithmetic,  and  65  in  geography. 
A  professor  of  history  in  one  of  our  greatest  universities  was  marked  39  in 
grammar,  and  60  in  arithmetic,  though  he  showed  even  then  his  natural  bent 
for  history  by  getting  a  mark  of  90.  A  well-known  editor  received  62  in 
grammar.  A  prominent  judge  secured  60  in  history.  But  further  examples 
are  needless  to  show  that  the  grammar  schools  of  their  day  did  not  rouse 
such  men  to  intellectual  achievements. 

Another  lesson  is  easily  learned  from  the  perusal  of  old  records — it  is 
unsafe  to  estimate  a  child's  mental  capacity  by  the  casual  blunders  he  may 
make,  even  if  they  seem  to  us  colossal.  To  conclude  that  because  a  boy 
cannot  locate  the  Nile  River  he  is  therefore  entirely  ignorant  of  geography 
is  as  unsafe  as  it  is  common  today  in  the  writings  of  critics  of  our  schools. 
To  infer  that  because  a  boy  makes  some  stupid  blunders  in  judgment  in  his 
examinations  he  is  therefore  unable  to  reason  at  all,  is  equally  unwise.  What 
can  be  said  of  the  intelligence  of  a  boy  who  could  make  the  following  answers 
in  history? 

1.  When  was  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  fought?    Ans.:  1492. 

2.  When  was  the  Constitution  adopted?     Ans.:  The  same  year. 

3.  For  what  reasons  was  war  declared  by  the  United   States  against   Great   Britain  in 
1812?  Ans.:  Admission  of  Texas  into  the  United  States. 

Yet  in  other  studies,  and  in  general  intelligence,  this  boy  seemed  to  be 
above  the  average  of  his  class. 

One  suspects  that  much  so-called  disciplinary  study  was  of  a  wooden 
and  mechanical  sort.  Those  were  the  days  when  pupils  memorized  geometry 
propositions  by  number,  recited  history  verbatim,  and  memorized  in  Latin 
grammar  exceptions  that  they  would  never  meet  in  their  reading  of  Latin. 
The  only  argument  in  defense  of  the  older  grammar  school  training  that 
seems  sound  may  be  stated  somewhat  as  follows:  All  effort  that  ends  in 
success  has  a  strengthening  effect  on  character.  The  grammar  schools  of 
bygone  daj's  made  learning  difficult.    Therefore  they  built  up  character. 

For  the  few  boys  or  girls  who  won  the  fight,  surmounted  the  difficulties 
of  poor  instruction,  and  worked  out  their  own  salvation,  undoubtedly  the 
process  was  a  strengthening  one.  but  for  the  mass  of  the  pupils  the  process 
was  not  worthy  of  comparison  with  that  of  our  modern  schools. 

On  the  whole  the  tests  show  us,  not  that  we  are  perfect,  for  our  imper- 
fections are  glaring  and  discouraging,  but  that  we  must  look  for  aid  to  the 
best  educational  thought  of  the  present  and  future  in  our  own  land  and 
abroad,  rather  than  to  a  past  system  on  which  we  have  made  many  im- 
provements. 

Speaking  in  broad  terms,  the  progress  since  1856  might  be  grouped  under 
the  following  heads:  Better  trained  teachers,  better  text  books,  better  school 
buildings  and  equipment,  better  supervision,  better  teaching  methods,  com- 
pulsory attendance  laws,  graded  schools,  evening  schools,  continuation 
schools,  trade  schools,  high  schools,  medical  inspection,  better  financial  sup- 
port of  schools,  education  of  the  deaf,  care  of  the  defective  and  the  orphaned 
and  destitute,  restriction  of  child  labor,  and  many  forms  of  welfare  work 
closely  connected   with   education.     These   improvements   are  of  course  not 


44  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

peculiar  to  our  county,  but  have  been  worked  out  in  many  cases  with  a  view 
to  the  special  needs  of  a  given  community. 

New  London  county,  too,  has  a  history  rich  in  private  generosity.  An 
unusual  number  of  institutions  have  been  started  by  private  bequests.  As  a 
part  of  our  outline  of  education  we  take  pleasure  in  tracing  the  history  of 
some  of  these  foundations.  It  is  well  for  us  to  remember,  however,  that, 
with  all  the  modern  devices  for  making  education  and  life  itself  an  easy 
process,  there  is  grave  danger  that  in  many  cases  the  young  people  of  today 
fail  to  attain  the  strength  of  character  and  mind  that  comes  through  over- 
coming difficulties  and  hardships. 

The  summary  given  below,  based  on  a  report  of  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, shows  the  course  of  legislation  since  1700,  a  period  of  215  years.  Most 
of  this  legislation  deals  with  support  and  maintenance. 

Support  of  Public  Schools. — The  system  of  public  instruction  in  Con- 
necticut in  1700  embraced  the  following: 

1.  A  tax  of  "forty  shillings  on  every  thousand  pounds  of  the  lists  of 
estates,"  was  collected  in  every  town  with  the  annual  tax  of  the  Colony,  and 
payable  proportionately  to  those  towns  only  which  should  keep  their  schools 
according  to  law ; 

2.  A  school  in  every  town  having  over  seventy  families,  kept  eleven 
months  in  the  year,  and  in  every  town  with  less  than  seventy  families,  kept 
for  at  least  six  months  in  the  year; 

3.  A  grammar  school  in  each  of  the  four  "head  county  towns"  to  fit  youth 
for  college,  two  of  which  grammar  schools  must  be  free; 

4.  A  collegiate  school,  toward  which  the  general  court  made  an  annual 
appropriation  of  £120. 

In  1773  an  act  was  passed  granting  all  the  moneys  that  should  arise  from 
the  sale  of  seven  townships,  in  what  is  now  Litchfield  county  (viz. :  Norfolk, 
Goshen,  Canaan,  Cornwall,  Kent,  Salisbury  and  Sharon),  to  the  towns  of  the 
colony  then  settled  for  the  support  of  schools,  "to  be  divided  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  their  polls  and  ratable  estate."  The  amount  realized  from 
the  sale  of  all  these  townships  cannot  now  be  determined.  Norfolk  was 
sold  for  £6,824  los. ;  Kent  for  £1,225  iQs-  In  the  revised  statutes  published 
in  1750,  the  "Act  for  educating  and  governing  children"  remains  nearly  the 
same  as  it  was  in  1650  with  the  addition  made  in  1670.  The  "Act  for  appoint- 
ing, encouraging,  and  supporting  Schools"  was  the  same  as  in  1700,  with  the 
additions  mentioned  above.  In  1754  the  amount  to  be  paid  from  the  treasury 
was  reduced  to  los.  on  each  £1,000;  in  1766  it  was  raised  to  20s.;  and  in 
1767  it  was  restored  to  40s.,  where  it  remained  till  1820. 

In  May,  1766,  the  selectmen  in  each  town  were  authorized  to  collect  any 
sums  which  remained  unpaid  at  that  date  for  excise  on  liquors,  tea,  etc.,  and 
pay  the  same  to  the  school  committee  in  the  several  towns  and  societies,  to 
be  set  apart  as  a  fund  to  be  improved  for  the  encouragement  of  schools.  And 
at  the  October  session,  1774,  the  treasurer  of  the  colony  is  directed  to  pay 
out  to  the  several  towns  the  principal  sums  paid  in  by  them  as  excise  money, 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  45 

together  with  the  interest  due  at  the  time  of  payment,  "which  moneys  shall 
be  appropriated  to  the  use  of  schools."  The  money  received  from  this  source, 
with  that  received  from  the  sale  of  the  townships  in  Litchfield  county,  con- 
stituted the  principal  part  of  the  so-called  School  Society  funds. 

By  the  Charter  of  1662,  given  by  Charles  II.,  Connecticut  was  bounded 
on  the  north  by  the  Massachusetts  line,  and  on  the  south  by  the  "sea"  (Long 
Island  sound),  and  extended  from  Narragansett  bay  to  the  "South  sea" 
(Pacific  ocean).  The  parts  of  this  territory  covered  by  the  grants  already 
made  to  New  York  and  New  Jersey  were  never  claimed  by  Connecticut; 
and  the  part  covered  by  Pennsylvania  was  given  up  to  the  claims  of  that 
State;  the  remaining  portion  was  held  by  Connecticut  till  after  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  when  it  was  all  ceded  to  the  United  States,  except  about  3,300,- 
000  acres  in  what  is  now  the  northwestern  part  of  Ohio.  The  territory  was 
known  as  the  "Western  Reserve,"  or  the  "Lands  west  of  Pennsylvania."  In 
May,  1795,  an  act  was  passed  appropriating  the  interest  on  the  moneys  which 
should  be  received  on  the  sale  of  these  lands  to  the  support  of  schools,  "to 
be  paid  over  to  the  said  societies  in  their  capacity  of  school  societies  according 
to  the  lists  of  polls  and  ratable  estate  of  such  societies  respectively."  The 
societies  here  referred  to  were  formerly  known  only  as  parishes  or  societies, 
and  later  as  ecclesiastical  societies.  This  act  recognizes  them  in  a  distinct 
capacity  and  denominates  them  school  societies. 

The  "lands  west  of  Pennsylvania"  were  sold  August,  1795,  for  $1,200,000, 
by  a  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  and  their  report  was  accepted 
by  the  legislature  in  October  of  the  same  year. 

The  first  apportionment  of  the  income  of  the  school  fund  was  made  in 
1779.  In  March,  1800,  the  dividends  were  $23,651.  Up  to  this  time  the  fund 
was  managed  by  the  committee  that  negotiated  the  sale.  In  1800,  three 
persons,  with  the  treasurer,  were  appointed  "managers"  of  this  fund.  In  1810 
Hon.  James  Hilhouse  was  appointed  commissioner  of  the  school  fund.  Dur- 
ing the  fifteen  years  of  his  administration  the  annual  dividend  averaged 
$52,061.35,  and  the  capital  was  increased  to  $1,719,434.24. 

In  1810  the  expense  of  keeping  a  district  school  above  the  amount  of 
public  money,  was  apportioned  according  to  the  number  of  days  of  attend- 
ance of  each  person  at  school;  in  181 1  this  was  so  altered  as  to  authorize  the 
apportionment  according  to  the  number  of  persons  attending. 

In  1820  an  act  was  passed  providing  that  the  appropriation  of  $2  upon 
every  $1,000  (40s.  on  every  £1,000)  in  the  list  of  each  school  society  should 
not  be  paid  whenever  the  income  of  the  school  fund  equalled  or  exceeded 
$62,000,  which  it  did  the  next  year.  From  this  date  the  income  of  the  fund 
was  apportioned  to  the  several  school  societies  and  districts  according  to 
the  number  of  persons  over  four  and  under  sixteen  in  each,  on  the  first  Mon- 
day of  August  in  each  year. 

In  1836  the  United  States  revenue  was  in  excess  of  the  expenditures,  and 
Congress  directed  all  the  surplus  except  $5,000,000,  to  be  divided  and  depos- 
ited v,-ith  the  several  States,  according  to  their  representation  in  Congress. 


46  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

The  amount  thus  appropriated  was  $37,468,859.97,  but  owing  to  the  financial 
revulsions  only  three-fourths  of  this  amount  was  paid  to  the  States.  This 
State  received  as  its  share  $764,670.60.  At  the  session  of  the  legislature  the 
same  year  an  act  was  passed  requiring  this  money  to  be  distributed  among 
the  several  towns  in  the  State  in  proportion  to  their  population,  and  that  one- 
half  at  least  of  the  entire  income  received  from  such  funds  should  be  annually 
appropriated  for  the  promotion  of  education  in  the  common  schools.  This 
is  denominated  the  "Town  deposit  fund."  The  amount  actually  distributed 
to  the  several  towns  was  $763,661.83. 

In  1841  an  act  authorized  the  school  societies  to  divide  the  public  money 
either  according  to  the  number  of  persons  in  the  districts  between  four  and 
sixteen,  or  according  to  the  number  who  had  attended  the  school ;  but  no 
district  was  to  receive  less  than  $50;  and  dividends  from  the  school  fund  were 
not  to  be  paid  to  any  district  unless  its  school  had  been  kept  at  least  four 
months  of  the  year.  It  was  also  provided  that  "two  or  more  adjoining  school 
districts  might  associate  together  and  form  a  union  district  with  power  to 
maintain  a  union  school,  to  be  kept  for  the  benefit  of  the  older  and  more 
advanced  children  of  such  united  district."  In  1842  the  act  constituting  a 
board  of  commissioners  w-as  repealed. 

In  1846,  the  act  passed  in  1841  requiring  the  school  societies  to  appro- 
priate to  each  district  at  least  $50  was  amended,  making  the  amount  $35,  pro- 
vided there  were  not  less  than  twelve  children  in  the  district. 

In  1854,  each  tov.'n  was  required  "annually  to  raise  by  taxation  a  sum 
equal  to  one  cent  on  the  dollar  on  their  grand  list  (as  made  up  at  that  time) 
for  the  support  of  schools,"  and  the  whole  amount  to  be  annually  distributed 
to  the  several  school  societies  within  each  town,  under  the  direction  of  the 
selectmen  and  town  treasurer.  When  the  amount  of  public  money  received 
by  any  district  was  less  than  thirty-five  dollars,  it  was  to  be  increased  to  that 
amount  from  the  money  raised  by  the  town  for  the  purposes  of  education, 
and  the  year  for  school  purposes  was  to  end  on  the  28th  of  February. 

In  1858,  school  districts  were  authorized  to  fix  a  "rate  of  tuition"  not 
exceeding  two  dollars  for  any  term  ;  but  they  might  exempt  therefrom  all 
persons  whom  they  considered  unable  to  pay  the  same,  and  the  town  was 
to  pay  the  amount  abated.  In  1862  this  was  raised  to  six  dollars  a  year,  and 
to  twelve  dollars  for  high  schools. 

In  i860  the  amount  to  be  raised  by  the  town  for  schools  was  fixed  at 
not  less  than  three-tenths  of  a  mill  on  the  dollar,  which  is  about  the  same 
as  the  amount  fixed  in  1854.  In  1866  this  was  raised  to  four-tenths.  In  1861 
an  act  provided  that  the  amount  raised  by  towns  for  school  and  the  income 
of  the  town  deposit  fund  should  be  distributed  under  the  direction  of  the 
selectmen  and  school  visitors ;  but  that  no  district  should  receive  less  than 
thirty-five  dollars  of  the  public  moneys. 

In  1868  the  amount  to  be  raised  by  the  town  was  "such  sums  as  each 
town  may  find  necessary  to  make  the  schools  free,  not  less  than  six-tenths 
of  a  mill  on  the  dollar,"  and  in  addition  to  four-tenths  of  a  mill   before 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  47 

required ;  and  the  public  money,  with  the  exception  of  so  much  as  was  neces- 
sary to  make  the  amount  to  each  district  fifty  dollars,  was  to  be  divided 
"according  to  average  daily  attendance." 

In  1869  the  amount  to  be  raised  by  the  towns  was  fixed  at  not  less  than 
one  mill  on  the  dollar;  sixty  dollars  to  be  apportioned  to  each  district,  and  the 
balance  of  the  public  money  to  be  "divided  according  to  aggregate  attendance." 

In  1871  an  annua!  appropriation  was  made  from  the  State  treasury  of  a 
sum  equal  to  fifty  cents  for  each  person  between  four  and  sixteen  years  of 
age,  to  be  paid  to  the  several  towns  with  the  dividends  of  the  school  fund. 

In  1872  the  legislature  voted  an  appropriation  to  schools  from  the  State 
treasury  "equal  in  dollars  to  one-half  the  number  of  persons  between  four 
and  sixteen  years  of  age."  In  1872  the  sum  of  $1.50  for  every  person  between 
the  age  of  four  and  sixteen  was  voted. 

In  1893  an  act  was  passed  providing  that  when  the  income  of  the  school 
fund  did  not  warrant  the  payment  of  seventy-five  cents  per  enumerated 
scholar,  making  with  $1.50  a  grant  of  $2.25  to  the  tow-ns  for  each  enumerated 
child,  the  deficiency  should  be  paid  from  the  State  treasury.  In  1897  it  was 
directed  that  the  income  of  the  school  fund  be  covered  into  the  treasury,  and 
that  $2.25  be  paid  to  the  towns  for  each  enumerated  child. 

In  1903,  an  act  was  passed  giving  towns  having  grand  lists  of  less  than 
$500,000,  a  grant  from  the  State  treasury  upon  the  basis  of  average  attend- 
ance in  addition  to  the  grant  of  $2.25  per  child  enumerated  to  enable  them 
to  make  an  expenditure  of  $25.00  per  child  in  average  attendance  for  support 
of  schools.  Each  of  these  towns  was  required  to  expend  the  proceeds  of  a 
four-mill  tax  for  the  support  of  the  schools.  This  act  was  amended  in  1907 
so  that  all  towns  having  grand  lists  of  less  than  $1,000,000  could  obtain  the 
grant.  In  1909  this  law  was  further  amended  so  that  all  towns  having  grand 
lists  of  less  than  $1,750,000  could  obtain  the  grant.  The  tax  rate  for  towns 
having  lists  under  $500,000  was  reduced  to  three  mills ;  those  having  lists 
over  $500,000  and  less  than  $1,000,000,  three  and  one-half  mills;  those  having 
lists  over  $1,000,000  and  less  than  $1,250,000,  four  mills;  and  those  having  lists 
over  $1,250,000  and  under  $1,750,000,  six  mills.  In  191 1  this  law  was  again 
amended  so  that  all  towns  having  grand  lists  under  $2,500,000  could  obtain 
the  grant.  Those  having  lists  under  $500,000  were  required  to  expend  two 
and  one-half  mills;  those  having  lists  over  $500,000  and  less  than  $1,000,000, 
three  mills;  those  having  lists  over  $1,000,000  and  less  than  $1,500,000,  three 
and  one-half  mills;  those  having  lists  over  $1,500,000  and  less  than  $2,000,000, 
four  and  one-half  mills ;  and  those  having  lists  over  $2,000,000  and  under 
$2,500,000,  six  mills. 

District  System. — In  May,  1717,  the  obligation  heretofore  imposed  on 
towns  of  seventy  families  to  maintain  a  school  for  eleven  months,  was  ex- 
tended to  parishes  or  ecclesiastical  societies  having  that  number  of  families; 
and  parishes  having  less  than  seventy  families  were  to  maintain  a  school 


48  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

for  half  the  year;  and  the  majority  of  householders  in  any  parish  were  author- 
ized to  lay  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  school. 

In  October,  1766,  a  law  was  passed  authorizing  each  town  and  society 
to  "divide  themselves  into  proper  and  necessary  districts  for  keeping  their 
schools,  and  to  alter  and  regulate  the  same  from  time  to  time,  as  they  shall 
have  occasion;  which  districts  shall  draw  their  equal  proportion  of  all  public 
moneys  belonging  to  such  towns  or  societies,  according  to  the  list  of  each 
respective  district  therein."  In  his  report  of  1853,  Dr.  Henry  Barnard  says 
that  "this  act,  with  the  operation  of  other  acts  transferring  to  school  societies 
the  direction  and  control  of  schools,  which  should  have  been  confined  to  towns, 
has  resulted  in  distributing  the  means  of  education  most  unequally  over  the 
state,  and  lowering  the  standard  of  education." 

In  1794  school  districts  were  authorized  "by  vote  of  two-thirds  of  all  the 
qualified  voters,  passed  at  a  meeting  called  for  that  purpose,  to  lay  a  tax  to 
build  a  schoolhouse,  and  to  locate  the  same,  and  to  choose  a  collector." 

In  May,  1798,  the  school  societies  were  invested  with  the  powers,  and 
subjected  to  the  duties,  which  the  former  laws  had  given  to  and  required  of 
towns  and  ecclesiastical  societies  relative  to  the  same  objects,  and  from  this 
date  they  are  known  in  law  as  school  societies — with  territorial  limits  some- 
times co-extensive  with  a  town,  or  in  some  cases  a  part  of  a  town,  and  in 
other  cases  parts  of  two  or  more  towns.  These  school  societies  not  only  had 
the  control  of  schools,  but  generally  of  the  burying  grounds  within  their 
limits.  In  the  revision  of  the  laws  respecting  schools  made  in  1799,  these 
societies  are  required  to  appoint  "overseers  or  visitors,"  whose  duties  were 
nearly  the  same  as  those  now  required  of  school  visitors.  School  societies 
were  authorized  to  form  school  districts,  and  these  districts  to  tax  themselves 
for  the  purpose  of  building  and  repairing  school  houses,  to  appoint  a  clerk, 
a  treasurer,  and  a  collector;  but  the  "committee  to  employ  teachers  and 
manage  the  prudentials"  was  appointed  by  the  school  societies.  School  soci- 
eties were  authorized  to  institute  and  support  schools  of  higher  order.  The 
law  did  not  specify  how  long  a  time  in  each  year  the  schools  should  be  kept 
open. 

In  1886,  towns  were  authorized  to  direct  their  school  visitors  to  purchase 
at  the  expense  of  the  town  the  text  books  and  other  school  supplies  used  in 
the  public  schools.  This  act  provided  that  the  books  and  supplies  should 
be  loaned  to  the  pupils  of  the  public  schools  free  of  charge. 

In  1886  the  employment  of  children  under  thirteen  in  mechanical,  mer- 
cantile, and  manufacturing  establishments  was  forbidden,  and  the  State  Boarc^ 
of  Education  was  authorized  to  enforce  the  law.  In  1895  the  age  was  changed 
to  fourteen.  Under  this  law  children  under  fourteen  and  unemployed  children 
between  fourteen  and  sixteen  are  sent  to  school  by  the  agents  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education. 

In  1889,  towns  were  authorized  to  discontinue  small  schools,  and  in  1893, 
school  visitors  were  authorized  to  provide  transportation  for  children  wher- 
ever any  school  was  discontinued. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  49 

In  1893,  women  were  given  the  right  to  vote  for  school  officers,  and  also 
to  vote  upon  any  matter  relating  to  education  or  to  schools.  In  the  same  year 
women  were  made  eligible  to  serve  on  the  board  of  directors  of  any  public 
library  or  on  the  Connecticut  Public  Library  Committee. 

In  1893,  the  State  Board  of  Education  was  directed  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  be  known  as  the  "Connecticut  Public  Library  Committee,"  and  in 
1895  acts  were  passed  providing  for  the  expenses  of  said  committee  and  for 
annual  appropriations  for  public  libraries. 

In  1897  it  was  enacted  that  children  residing  in  towns  whose  grand  list 
was  less  than  $900,000  might,  with  the  consent  of  the  school  visitors,  attend 
a  non-local  high  school,  and  that  a  tuition  fee  not  exceeding  two-thirds  of 
$30  should  be  paid  from  the  State  treasury.  In  1899  the  $900,000  limit  was 
removed  so  that  all  towns  might  receive  the  State  grant  for  scholars  attending 
non-local  high  schools. 

In  1903,  the  State  was  authorized  to  pay  one-half  the  expense  of  con- 
veying children  to  and  from  non-local  high  schools,  provided  that  not  more 
than  tw'enty  dollars  be  paid  by  the  State  for  each  scholar  conveyed. 

In  192 1  the  sum  to  be  refunded  towns  for  high  school  tuition  was  in- 
creased to  $50. 

In  1899  it  '^^'23  provided  that  the  eyesight  of  the  pupils  in  the  public 
schools  should  be  tested  annually,  and  in  1901  this  law  was  modified  so  that 
after  1904  the  test  should  be  made  triennially. 

Supervision. — In  1903,  the  supervision  of  schools  was  authorized.  Two 
or  more  towns  together  employing  not  less  than  twenty-five  nor  more  than 
fifty  teachers  w^ere  authorized  to  form  a  supervision  district  which  should 
continue  for  three  years  at  least,  and  employ  a  superintendent  of  schools.  The 
State  was  required  to  pa}'  one-half  of  the  annual  salary  of  the  superintendent 
provided  that  one-half  did  not  exceed  SSoo.  This  act  also  provided  that  upon 
the  petition  of  the  school  board  of  any  town  employing  not  more  than  ten 
teachers,  the  State  Board  of  Education  should  appoint  an  agent  who  should 
discharge  the  duties  of  superintendent  of  schools  in  said  town  Any  town  for 
which  a  superintendent  was  appointed  under  this  act  was  required  to  pay 
one-quarter  of  the  salary  of  the  superintendent,  and  the  State  was  required 
to  pay  three-quarters.  In  1907,  this  act  was  so  amended  that  any  town 
having  not  more  than  twenty  teachers  could  petition  the  State  Board  of 
Education  to  appoint  an  agent  to  discharge  the  duties  of  superintendent,  the 
town  to  pay  one-quarter  of  the  salary  and  the  State  three-quarters  A  further 
amendment  to  this  act  was  made  in  1909  so  that  towns  having  over  twenty 
and  not  more  than  thirty  teachers  could  appoint  a  superintendent  of  schools 
and  obtain  one-half  of  the  salary  of  said  superintendent  from  the  State,  pro- 
vided the  half  should  not  exceed  $Soo  per  year.  Another  amendment  pro- 
vided that  the  State  should  pay  the  entire  salary  of  superintendents  appointed 
for  towns  having  not  more  than  twenty  teachers. 

Trade   Schools. — In   1907,  the  establishment  of  free  public  schools  for 
x.L— 1-4 


so  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

instruction  in  the  principles  and  practice  of  trades  was  authorized.  The  State 
Board  of  Education  was  authorized  to  expend  a  sum  not  to  exceed  $50,000 
for  the  support  and  maintenance  of  not  more  than  two  schools.  No  action 
was  taken  under  the  provisions  of  this  law,  and  it  was  repealed  in  1909,  when 
an  act  authorized  the  State  Board  of  Education  to  establish  two  schools,  and 
providing  an  annual  appropriation  of  $50,000  for  their  support. 

In  1913,  the  act  of  1909  was  amended  so  that  town  school  committees 
and  district  boards  of  education  could  establish  and  maintain  schools  or 
courses  of  instruction  in  distinct  trades,  useful  occupations  and  avocations, 
and  obtain  from  the  State  annually  a  grant  not  to  exceed  fifty  dollars  per 
pupil  in  average  attendance.  This  amendment  also  provided  that  the  sum 
of  $125,000  should  be  appropriated  for  the  maintenance  of  such  schools. 

Model  Schools. — In  1913,  the  State  Board  of  Education  was  authorized 
to  organize  one  school  in  each  town  having  twenty  teachers  or  less  as  a  model 
school  for  observation  and  instruction  of  training  classes  conducted  by 
the  supervisor,  and  it  was  provided  that  the  board  might  pay  the  teacher 
not  to  exceed  three  dollars  per  week,  provided  that  the  town  in  which  the 
model  school  is  located  should  pay  not  less  than  ten  dollars  a  week  or  not 
less  than  the  wage  which  was  paid  for  teaching  in  said  school  during  the 
previous  year. 

In  "An  Act  concerning  schools,"  passed  in  1839,  a  school  district  is  for 
the  first  time  declared  to  be  a  "body  corporate,  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  purchase, 
receive,  hold,  and  convey  any  estate,  real  or  personal,  for  the  support  of 
schooling  in  the  same,  and  to  prosecute  and  defend  in  all  actions  relating  to 
the  property  and  affairs  of  the  district."  This  act  also  empowered  school 
districts  to  appoint  their  committees.  It  named  the  branches  (the  same  as 
those  now  required)  which  a  person  must  be  found  qualified  to  teach  before 
he  could  receive  a  certificate  from  the  school  visitors.  This  act  also  provided 
that  any  school  society  might  "apportion  the  public  money  among  the  dis- 
tricts, either  according  to  the  number  of  persons  between  four  and  sixteen, 
or  according  to  the  amount  of  attendance  for  a  period  of  six  months  in  each 
year."  It  was  also  provided  that  school  districts  might  tax  themselves  to 
the  amount  of  $30  the  first  year  and  $10  each  year  afterwards  for  school 
libraries;  and  that  two  or  more  districts  might  associate  for  supporting  a 
high  school.  In  1856.  school  societies  were  abolished,  and  their  property  and 
their  obligations  transferred  to  towns. 

In  1865  towns  were  authorized  to  consolidate  their  school  districts ;  and 
the  act  constituting  the  State  Board  of  Education  was  enacted.  The  act 
making  the  principal  of  the  normal  school  ex-ofHcio  superintendent  of  common 
schools  was  repealed. 

In  1870  the  time  schools  must  be  kept  in  each  year  was  made  at  least 
thirty  weeks  in  districts  in  which  there  were  twenty-four  or  more  persons 
between  four  and  sixteen  years  of  age;  and  twenty-four  weeks,  at  least,  in 
other  districts;  and  the  appropriation  of  funds  was  to  be  made  under  the 
direction  of  the  school  visitors  and  selectmen. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  51 

In  1S88  the  towns  were  required  to  maintain  schools  thirty-six  weeks 
in  each  year  in  districts  numbering  one  hundred  or  more  children,  and  twenty- 
four  weeks  in  other  districts.  In  1889  this  was  changed  to  thirty-six  weeks 
for  districts  enumerating  fifty  or  more,  and  thirty  weeks  for  other  districts. 
In  1S95  thirty-six  weeks  was  prescribed  for  all  schools. 

In  1909,  the  district  system  was  abolished  in  fifty-seven  towns.  Ninety- 
one  towns  had  voluntarily  consolidated  their  districts  previous  to  the  passage 
of  this  act  and  several  had  obtained  special  legislation  under  which  con- 
solidation in  part  had  been  established. 

Normal  Schools. — In  1849,  the  State  Normal  School  was  established  at 
New  Britain.  In  1889,  a  second  normal  school  was  established  at  Willimantic. 
In  1893,  normal  schools  were  authorized  at  New  Haven  and  Bridgeport.  In 
1895  so  much  of  this  act  as  provided  for  a  normal  school  at  Bridgeport  was 
repealed.    In  1903,  a  normal  school  at  Danbury  was  established. 

In  1909,  an  act  was  passed  providing  that  the  State  Board  of  Education 
may  at  all  times  maintain,  in  any  of  the  normal  schools,  one  student,  selected 
on  the  basis  of  scholarship  and  general  fitness,  from  each  town  in  the  State 
having  a  valuation  of  less  than  one  and  one-half  million  dollars.  The  board 
was  authorized  to  pay  the  living  expenses  of  each  student,  not  to  exceed  $150 
in  any  one  year.  Each  student  was  required  to  enter  into  an  agreement  with 
the  State  Board  of  Education  to  teach  in  one  of  the  towns  from  which  such 
students  are  nominated  or  appointed  for  a  period  of  three  years  after  gradu- 
ation unless  excused  by  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

In  1882  was  enacted  a  law  requiring  "instruction  concerning  the  effect  of 
intoxicating  beverages"  if  "twelve  persons  of  adult  years"  petitioned  the 
school  visitors  therefor.  If  the  visitors  did  not  grant  the  petition,  an  appeal 
to  town  meeting  was  provided.  In  1886  physiology  and  hygiene  relating 
especially  to  the  effect  of  alcohol  on  the  human  system  were  made  obligatory 
subjects  and  put  on  the  same  plane  as  reading  and  writing;  school  officers 
were  required  to  examine  teachers  in  these  subjects.  In  the  same  year  the 
State  Board  of  Education  was  authorized  to  prescribe  the  books  and  to  pre- 
pare a  text-book  and  charts  to  be  distributed  to  schools  without  charge. 
Under  the  law  about  forty  thousand  copies  of  a  text-book  were  distributed. 
In  1893  the  "nature  of  alcoholic  drinks  and  narcotics"  became  an  obligatory 
study.  Graded  text-books  must  be  used  in  every  school  and  studied  by  all 
pupils.  In  the  lower  grades  one-fifth  of  each  book  must  be  devoted  to  "the 
nature  and  effects"  of  alcohol  and  narcotics;  in  higher  grades  the  books  must 
contain  at  least  twenty  pages  relating  to  the  subject.  Massing  these  pages 
at  the  end  of  a  book  is  not  compliance  with  the  law.  Teachers  must  have  an 
examination  as  to  the  "effects  and  nature  of  alcoholic  drinks  upon  the  human 
system."  Failure  to  comply  with  the  provisions  of  the  law  is  "sufficient 
cause"  for  forfeiture  of  public  money. 

In  1884,  the  State  Board  of  Education  was  authorized  to  grant  certificates 
of  qualification  to  teach  in  any  public  school  in  the  State  and  to  revoke  the 


52  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

same.  In  1895,  an  act  provided  that  certificates  granted  by  the  State  Board 
of  Education  should  be  accepted  by  local  boards  in  lieu  of  any  other  ex- 
amination. 

In  1885,  the  establishment  of  evening  schools  was  provided  for  by  law. 
Provision  was  made  thereby  for  the  instruction  of  persons  over  fourteen  years 
of  age  in  spelling,  reading,  writing,  geography,  arithmetic,  and  such  other 
studies  as  might  be  prescribed  by  the  board  of  school  visitors.  A  grant  of 
$1.50  per  child  in  average  attendance  was  fixed  by  this  act  to  be  paid  from 
the  treasury  of  the  State.  In  1893.  this  law  was  amended  so  that  it  was  com- 
pulsory on  every  town  and  school  district  having  ten  thousand  or  more  in- 
habitants to  establish  and  maintain  evening  schools.  It  was  provided  that 
no  person  over  fourteen  and  under  sixteen  years  of  age  should  be  employed 
in  any  manufacturing,  mercantile,  or  mechanical  occupation  in  any  town  where 
evening  schools  were  established,  unless  he  had  attended  an  evening  school 
twenty  consecutive  evenings  in  the  current  school  year  and  was  a  regular 
attendant.  The  State  grant  was  increased  to  $3  per  pupil  in  average  attend- 
ance. One  hundred  sessions  of  a  school  was  required  as  a  conditon  of  obtain- 
ing the  State  grant. 

In  1895,  the  law  was  amended  so  that  only  seventy-five  sessions  were 
required  to  obtain  the  grant,  and  the  grant  was  reduced  from  $3  per  child 
in  average  attendance  to  $2.25.  A  further  amendment  of  the  law  was  made 
in  1909  so  that  on  petition  of  at  least  twenty  persons  over  fourteen  years  of 
age,  instruction  in  any  study  usually  taught  in  a  high  school  might  be  in- 
troduced. The  last  legislation  in  Connecticut  (1921)  has  been  compiled  by 
the  State  Board  of  Education  and  the  report  may  be  secured  by  application 
to  the  Commissioner  of  Education.  It  is  too  voluminous  for  us  to  print  in 
this  chapter. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  importance  placed  on  education  by  the  early 
settlers,  and  have  enumerated  many  such  schools  in  New  London  and  Nor- 
which.  The  settlers  also  felt  a  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  the  Indians. 
Many  of  these  aborigines  were  suffering  from  drunkenness  and  ignorance, 
and  it  was  not  easy  to  get  them  to  take  an  interest  in  a  higher  life.  The 
pastors  in  New  London  and  Norwich  did  their  best.  We  submit  a  curious 
document,  signed  by  the  Mohegan  Chief,  Uncas. 

When  King  Charles  the  First  sent  his  red-faced  well-beloved  cousin  "a 
Bible  to  show  him  the  way  to  heaven,  and  a  sword  to  defend  him  from  his 
enemies,"  Uncas  valued  the  latter  gift  much  more  than  he  did  the  former. 
But  I  am  happy  to  bring  forward  one  new  fact  to  show  that  he  was  not  at  all 
times  indifferent  to  the  other  present.  It  has  often  been  stated  that  Uncas 
uniformly  opposed  the  introduction  of  Christianity  among  the  people  of  his 
tribe.  Within  a  few  days  past  an  original  document  has  come  to  light  which 
bears  important  testimony  on  this  interesting  question.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  a  bond  in  which,  under  his  own  signature,  the  sachem  promises  to 
attend  the  ministrations  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Fitch,  whensoever  and  wheresoever 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  53 

he  may  choose  to  appoint.  This  paper  is  so  remarkable  that  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  of  reading  it  in  full.  If  we  cannot  call  it  the  sachem's  creed  or  con- 
fession of  faith,  it  is  at  least  his  covenant: 

Be  it  known  to  all  men  and  in  special  to  the  Authority  of  The  Colony  of 
Conccticott  That  I  Uncas  sachim  of  the  Munheags,  now  resident  in  Pame- 
chaug  doe  by  these  presents  firmly  engage  and  binde  my  selfe,  that  I  will 
from  time  to  time  and  at  all  times  hereafter,  in  a  constant  way  and  manner 
attend  up  Mr.  James  Fitch  Minister  of  Norwich,  at  all  such  seasons  as  he 
shall  appoint  for  preaching  and  to  praying  with  the  Indians  either  at  my  now 
residence,  or  wheresoever  els  he  shall  appoint  for  that  holy  service,  and 
further  I  doe  faithfully  promis  to  Command  all  my  people  to  attend  the  same, 
in  a  constant  way  and  solemn  manner  at  all  such  times  as  shall  be  sett  by  the 
sayd  Mr.  James  Fitch  minister,  alsoe  I  promis  that  I  will  not  by  any  wayes 
or  meanes  what  soe  ever,  either  privatly  or  openly  use  any  plots  or  contrive- 
ances  by  words  or  actions  to  afifright  or  discourage  any  of  my  people  or  others, 
from  attending  the  Good  work  aforesayd,  upon  penalty  of  suffering  the  most 
grevious  punishment  that  can  be  inflicted  upon  me,  and  Lastly  I  promis  to 
encourage  all  my  people  by  all  Good  wayes  and  meanes  I  can,  in  the  due 
observance  of  such  directions  and  instructions,  as  shall  be  presented  to  them 
by  the  sayd  Mr.  James  Fitch  aforesayd,  and  to  the  truth  hereof  this  seaventh 
day  of  June  in  the  year  one  thousand  six  hundred  seventy  and  three  I  have 
hereunto  set  my  hand  or  mark. 

Wittnesed  b}'  us  mark 

John  Talcott  The     *     of  Uncass 

Tho:  Stanton.  Ser. 
Samuell  Mason. 

Let  us  look  with  charity,  my  friends,  upon  this  promise,  remembering 
that  every  man,  red  face  and  pale  face  alike,  is  accepted  "according  to  that 
which  he  hath,  and  not  according  to  that  which  he  hath  not." 

Of  interest  in  education  on  the  part  of  New  London  county  citizens,  the 
following  is  a  proof,  quoted  from  Dr  Gilman's  address : 

Yale  College  is  even  more  indebted  to  Norwich.  Before  it  was  char- 
tered by  the  State,  Major  James  Fitch  (another  son  of  Reverend  James)  gave 
to  the  new  collegiate  school  a  farm  of  637  acres  of  land,  and  offered  the  glass 
and  nails  for  a  house.     The  following  is  his  proposal : 

Majr.  Fitch's  Generosity  Proposed  1701. — In  that  it  hath  pleased  y  Lord 
our  God  as  a  token  for  Good  To  us  and  children  after  us  to  put  it  into  the 
hearts  of  his  faithfull  ministers :  to  take  soe  great  paines,  and  be  at  soe  con- 
siderable charge  for  setting  up  a  coledgeat  schoole  amongst  us  and  now  for 
farther  promoating,  of  this  God  pleasing  worke  I  humbly,  freely  and  heartily 
offer,  on  demand  to  provid  glass  for  a  house  and  if  people  doe  not  come  up 
to  offer  wdiat  is  reasonable  and  needfull  that  I  will  than  provid  nails  of  all 
sorts:  to  be  used  in  building  a  houes  and  hall:  2iy  I  give  a  farme,  637  Acrs 
of  land  and  when  I  come  home  I  will  send  ye  draft  and  laying  out  to  Mr. 
Danl.  Taylor  that  he  may  make  such  a  Deed  proper  in  such  a  case  the  farme 
of  value  at  150  £  I  w-ill  alsoe  take  some  pains  to  put  it  in  a  way  of  yearely 
profitt  30  i  charge  I  hope  will  bring  20  £  p  yeare  in  a  little  time. 

Newhaven  October  16  1701  James  Fitch. 


54  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

It  was  this  noble  gift  which  insured  at  that  time  the  establishment  of  the 
now  venerable  institution.  Not  many  years  after,  Dr.  Daniel  Lathrop,  beside 
a  large  donation  to  the  public  school  of  his  native  place,  gave  £500  to  the 
college  without  limitations;  and  within  the  memory  of  most  of  those  now 
present.  Dr.  Alfred  E.  Perkins,  impressed  with  the  thought  that  "a  true 
university  in  these  days  is  a  collection  of  books,"  gave  a  fund  of  $10,000  to 
the  college  library  in  New  Haven,  thus  perpetuating  his  name  in  grateful 
remembrance,  and  exerting  an  influence  which  will  increase  till  the  college 
and  the  country  are  no  more.  Three  citizens  of  Norwich,  "to  the  manner 
born,"  have  thus  given  to  Yale  College  the  largest  donations  which,  at  each 
successive  time,  its  treasury  had  received  from  any  individual,  and  their 
example  has  been  followed  by  many  others,  giving  in  proportion  to  their 
means. 

The  most  remarkable  of  the  attempts  to  civilize  the  Indians  is  doubtless 
that  of  Rev.  Eleazer  Wheelock  of  Lebanon.  The  remarkable  results  of  his 
effort  with  Samson  Occum  is  shown  in  the  following  account  of  the  origin 
of  Dartmouth  College,  taken  from  Kurd's  "History  of  New  London  County, 
Connecticut" : 

In  1735,  Eleazer  Wheelock,  a  clerg\-man  of  fine  talents,  of  earnest  char- 
acter, and  of  devoted  piety,  was  settled  over  the  Second  Congregational 
Church,  in  the  north  part  of  the  town  of  Lebanon.  Like  many  other  ministers 
of  the  day  and  afterwards,  he  had  several  young  men  in  his  family,  whom  he 
taught  the  higher  branches  of  English  and  in  the  classics. 

In  December,  1743.  a  young  Mohegan  Indian,  about  twenty  years  of  age, 
Samson  Occom,  whose  name  has  since  become  more  famous  than  that  of  any 
other  of  the  tribe,  unless  perhaps  the  first  Uncas,  applied  to  Mr.  Wheelock 
for  admission  among  his  scholars.  Occom  was  born  in  1723,  at  Mohegan, 
and  grew  up  in  the  pagan  faith  and  the  rude  and  savage  customs  of  his  tribe. 
During  the  great  religious  awakening  of  1739-40  he  had  become  convinced 
of  the"  truth  of  Christianity,  and  deeply  alarmed  for  his  own  lost  condition. 
For  six  months  he  groaned  in  the  gloom  of  his  darkness,  but  then  light  broke 
into  his  soul,  and  he  was  seized  with  an  irresistible  impulse  to  carry  this  great 
light  to  his  benighted  race,  and  to  become  a  teacher  to  his  lost  brethren,  and 
with  his  heart  swelling  with  this  impulse  he  now  stood  before  Wheelock, 
asking  to  be  instructed  for  this  great  work. 

It  was  not  in  the  heart  of  Wheelock  to  resist  this  appeal,  and  he  at  once 
admitted  him  to  his  school  and  family  with  open  arms,  and  in  the  spirit  of  his 
mission.  Occom  had  already  learned  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  and  could 
spell  out  a  few  words,  and  such  was  his  zeal  and  devotion  to  study  that  in 
four  years  he  was  fitted  to  enter  college;  but  his  health  had  been  so  impaired 
by  intense  application,  and  lacking  also  the  means,  he  never  entered.  Leav- 
ing school,  he  returned  to  his  tribe,  preaching  and  teaching  salvation  through 
Christ  alone,  with  power  and  effect,  supporting  himself  meantime,  like  the 
rest  of  his  tribe,  b^-  hunting  and  fishing,  and  the  rude  Indian  arts  of  making 
baskets  and  other  Indian  utensils,  and  occasionally  teaching  small  Indian 
schools,  but  during  all  this  time  still  pursuing  his  own  studies  in  theology 
and  Bible  literature.  > 

In  this  mission  he  visited  other  tribes.  In  1748  he  went  over  to  Long 
Island  and  spent  several  vears  there  among  the  IMontauk,  the  Shenecock,  and 
other  tribes,  preaching  and  teaching  with  great  success.    At  one  time  a  great 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  55 

revival  occurred  under  his  labors  there,  during  which  many  Indians  were 
converted.  August  29,  1759,  he  was  ordained  by  the  Suffolk  Presbytery  of 
Long  Island,  and  was  ever  after  regarded  as  a  regular  member  of  that  ecclesi- 
astical body. 

The  case  of  Occom  and  its  instructive  results  attracted  wide  attention 
from  the  first  start,  and  Mr.  Wheelock  determined  to  open  his  school  to  other 
Indian  youths  who  desired  to  engage  in  and  be  fitted  for  the  same  work, 
and  in  a  short  time  it  became  exclusively  an  "Indian  .'school"  for  missionary 
purposes,  so  that  by  1762  he  had  more  than  twenty  Indian  students^  preparing 
for  the  conversion  of  their  countrymen. 

This  new  movement  attracted  the  earnest  attention  of  the  leading  clergy- 
men and  Christian  philanthropists  throughout  all  New  England  and  the 
Northern  colonies.  To  all  who  looked  with  anxiety  for  the  conversion  and 
civilization  of  the  aborigines  of  this  part  of  North  .'\merica.  this  school  was 
long  considered  the  brightest  and  most  promising  ground  of  hope.  Notes  of 
encouragement  came  pouring  in  from  various  sources  throughout  all  the  New 
England  colonies,  from  ministers'  councils,  from  churches,  and  from  eminent 
leaders  and  philanthropists,  with  money  contributions,  cheering  on  the  move- 
ment, and  all  aiming  to  increase  the  numbers  in  training,  and  to  give  to  the 
school  a  wider  sweep  in  its  influence.  Probably  no  school  in  this  or  any  other 
land  or  age  ever  awakened  so  widespread  and  intense  an  interest  or  seemed 
freighted  with  such  a  precious  and  hopeful  mission  as  did  then  this  little 
parochial  school,  kept  in  the  obscure  parsonage  of  a  country  minister. 

In  1765  a  general  conference  of  the  friends  of  the  school  was  held,  at 
which  it  was  determined  to  send  Samson  Occom  to  England  to  show  to  our 
English  brethren  there  what  Christianity  had  done  for  him,  and  what  it  could 
do  for  the  natives  of  North  America,  and  that  Rev.  Nathaniel  Whitaker.  of 
Norwich,  should  go  with  him,  to  enlist  co-operation  in  the  cause  and  to 
solicit  contributions  in  its  aid.  Occom  was  then  forty-three  years  old,  well 
educated,  and  spoke  English  clearly  and  fluently.  His  features  and  com- 
plexion bore  every  mark  of  his  race,  but  he  was  easy  and  natural  in  social 
manners,  frank  and  cordial,  but  modest  in  conversation,  and  his  deportment 
in  the  pulpit  was  such  as  to  command  deep  attention  and  respect.  He  could 
preach  extemporaneously  and  well,  but  usually  wrote  his  sermons.  Such, 
then,  was  this  son  of  the  forest,  and  such  his  sublime  mission  to  the  English 
mother-land — to  convert  the  natives  of  a  pagan  continent  to  Christianity 
and  civilization  through  the  ministry  of  pagan  converts  of  their  own  race. 

His  appearance  in  England  produced  an  extraordinary  sensation,  and  he 
preached  with  great  applause  in  London  and  other  principal  cities  of  Great 
Britain  and  .Scotland  to  crowded  audiences.  From  the  i6th  of  February,  1766, 
to  the  22d  of  July,  1767,  he  delivered  between  three  and  four  hundred  sermons, 
many  of  them  in  the  presence  of  the  king  and  the  royal  family  and  the  great 
nobles  of  the  land.  Large  contributions  were  taken  up  after  each  of  thesu 
discourses :  the  king  himself  gave  £200,  and  in  the  whole  enterprise  £700 
sterling  were  collected  in  England  and  about  £300  in  Scotland. 

This  success  resulted  in  transferring  W'heelock's  Indian  School  to  New 
Hampshire,  which  it  was  thought  would  be  a  better  place  for  an  Indian  sem- 
inarj',  as  being  more  retired  and  less  exposed  to  disturbing  influences  than 
the  more  thickly  settled  colony  of  Connecticut.  It  was  then  incorporated  as 
Dartmouth  College  (taking  its  name  from  the  pious  and  noble  Earl  of  Dart- 
mouth, whom  Occom's  mission  in  England  had  warmly  enlisted  in  the  cause), 
for  the  special  object  and  purpose  of  educating  and  training  Indian  youths 
for  the  ministry  and  missionary  work  of  their  race;  but  after  the  death  of 
Eleazer  Wheelock,  its  founder  and  president,  and  especially  after  the  death 


56  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

of  his  son,  John  Wheelock,  who  succeeded  him  as  president,  its  original  and 
distinctive  character  as  an  Indian  seminary  gradually  changed  until  it  became, 
as  it  still  remains,  assimilated  in  character  and  purpose  with  the  other  colleges 
of  the  country ;  and  so  the  glowing  dream,  the  fervid  zeal,  and  the  sanguine 
hopes  and  expectations  of  its  great-souled  founders  faded  away. 

In  1771,  a  Mohegan  Indian,  named  Moses  Paul,  was  tried  at  New  London 
and  condemned  to  death  for  the  murder,  in  a  drunken  brawl,  of  Moses  Clark. 
A  large  assembly  of  English  and  Indians  collected  to  witness  the  execution. 
At  the  request  of  the  prisoner,  Samson  Occom  was  appointed  by  the  authori- 
ties to  preach  a  funeral  sermon  in  the  presence  of  the  poor  wretch,  as  was  the 
custom  of  the  time,  just  before  he  was  launched  into  eternity.  Upon  his  own 
coffin,  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  sat  the  doomed  man.  Next  around  him  were 
seated  his  brethren  of  the  Mohegan  tribe,  the  audience  filling  the  rest  of  the 
church,  a  great  crowd  surrounding  it.  and  a  military  company  acting  as  guard. 

The  sermon  is  still  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  Connecticut  Historical 
Society  at  Hartford  (Pamphlet  No.  225) ;  the  text  from  Romans  vi.  23:  "For 
the  wages  of  sin  is  death  ;  but  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord."  It  is  not  eloquent,  it  is  not  grand  oratory,  but  it  is  some- 
thing higher  than  eloquence,  and  in  its  sad  and  solemn  moaning  over  the 
degraded  and  lost  condition  of  his  race,  in  their  pagan  darkness,  their  wicked- 
ness, the  awful  consequences  of  drunkenness,  their  besetting  sin,  it  has  all  the 
moving  power  and  pathos  of  a  Hebrew  wail. 

The  first  part  of  the  discourse  dwells  at  length  upon  the  peculiar  mean- 
ing and  significance  of  the  term  "death,"  as  used  in  the  text,  its  endless  char- 
acter, and  was  addressed  to  the  audience  at  large,  and  rising  with  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  idea,  he  exclaimed.  "Eternitv!  O  Eternity!  Who  can  measure  iti* 
Who  can  count  the  years  thereof?  Arithmetic  fails,  the  thoughts  of  men  and 
angels  are  drowned  in  it.  How  shall  we  describe  eternity?  To  w-hat  shall 
we  compare  it?  Were  a  fly  to  carry  ofif  one  particle  of  this  globe  to  such  a 
distance  that  it  would  take  ten  thousand  }-ears  to  go  and  return  for  another, 
and  so  continue  till  he  had  carried  off,  particle  by  particle,  once  in  ten  thou- 
sand years,  the  whole  of  this  globe  and  placed  it  in  that  distant  space,  just 
as  it  is  now  here,  after  all  this,  eternity  would  remain  the  same  unexhausted 
duration  !  And  this  eternal  death  must  be  the  certain  portion  of  all  impeni- 
tent sinners,  be  they  who  they  may,  Negroes,  Indians,  English,  or  what  nation 
soever ;  honorable  or  ignoble,  great  or  small,  rich  or  poor,  bond  or  free,  all 
who  die  in  their  sins  must  go  to  hell  together,  'for  the  wages  of  sin  is  death.'  " 

He  next  addressed  the  doomed  prisoner  upon  his  cofifin,  pointed  out  to 
him  the  enormity  of  his  crime,  and  how  by  drunkenness,  and  by  despising 
the  warnings  and  counsels  of  Christian  teachers,  he  had  been  led  to  it;  ex- 
plained to  him  the  wav  of  salvation,  urging  him  with  pathos  and  earnest 
energy  at  once  to  accept  it,  and  like  the  dying  thief  upon  the  cross  beside 
the  crucified  Saviour,  to  throw  himself  upon  the  mercy  of  that  same  Saviour, 
and  so,  even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  escape  eternal  death. 

He  then  turned  to  the  Mohegans  present:  "My  poor  kindred!"  he  ex- 
claimed, "you  see  the  woful  consequences  of  sin  by  seeing  this,  our  poor, 
miserable  countryman,  now  before  us.  who  is  to  die  for  his  sins  and  his  great 
crime,  and  it  was  especially  the  sin  of  drunkenness  that  brought  this  destruc- 
tion and  untimely  death  upon  him.  There  is  a  dreadful  woe  denounced  from 
the  Almightv  against  drunkards;  and  it  is  this  sin,  this  abominable,  this 
beastly  sin  of  drunkenness  that  has  stript  us  of  every  desirable  comfort  in 
this  life.  By  this  sin  we  have  no  name  or  credit  in  the  world;  for  this  sin  we 
are  despised,  and  it  is  right  and  just,  for  we  despise  ourselves.  By  this  sin 
we   have   no   comfortable   houses,   nor   anvthinc:  comfortable   in   our  houses. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EDUCATION  57 

neither  food,  nor  raiment,  nor  decent  utensils;  we  go  about  with  ragged  and 
dirty  clothing  and  almost  naked,  most  of  the  time  half  starved,  and  obliged 
to  pick  up  and  eat  such  food  as  we  can  find ;  and  our  poor  children  suffering 
every  day,  often  crying  for  food,  and  we  have  nothing  for  them,  and  in  the 
cold  winter  shivering  and  crying,  pinched  with  cold.  All  this  comes  from  the 
love  of  strong  drink.  And  this  is  not  all  the  misery  and  evil  we  bring  upon 
ourselves  by  this  sin.  for  when  we  are  intoxicated  with  strong  drink  we  drown 
our  rational  powers,  by  which  we  are  distinguished  from  the  brute  creation ; 
we  unman  ourselves,  and  sink  not  only  to  a  level  with  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
but  seven  des'recs  beneath  them  ;  yea,  we  bring  ourselves  to  a  level  with  the 
devils ;  and  I  don't  know  but  we  make  ourselves  worse  than  the  devils,  for  I 
never  heard  of  a  drunken  devil." 

He  closed  his  discourse  with  a  fervid  exhortation  to  his  IMohegan  brethren 
to  break  off  from  their  sins,  and  especially  from  their  besetting  sin  of  drunk- 
enness, by  a  gospel  repentance :  to  "take  warning  by  the  doleful  sight  no^y 
before  us,"  and  from  the  dreadful  judgments  that  have  befallen  poor  drunk- 
ards. "You  that  have  been  careless  all  your  dav  now  awake  to  righteousness 
and  be  concerned  for  your  never-dying  souls."  Fight  against  all  sin,  and  espe- 
cially against  your  besetting  sin,  "and  above  all  things  believe  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  you  shall  have  eternal  life,  and  when  you  come  to  die  your 
souls  will  be  received  into  heaven,  there  to  be  with  the  Lord  Jesus  and  all  the 
saints  in  glory,  which  God  in  His  infinite  mercy  grant,  through  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord.     Amen." 

In  1/86  he  gathered  a  few  Alohegans  and  several  other  Indians  from  other 
tribes  in  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  Long  Island,  and  went  with  them  to 
Oneida  county.  New  York,  and  there  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  clan  after- 
wards known  as  the  Brothertown  tribe  among  the  Six  Nations.  He  con- 
tinued as  their  minister,  acting  also  as  a  missionarv  among  the  Six  Nations, 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  July,  1792.  more  than  three  hundred  Indians 
following  him  mournful!}'  and  tearfulh-  to  the  grave. 

Another  young  Mohegan.  Joseph  Johnson,  educated  in  Wheelock's  school. 
became  also  a  preacher  of  great  power  and  influence.  He  was  sent  earlv  as 
a  missionary  to  the  Six  Nations  of  New  York,  and  afterwards  co-operated 
with  Occom  in  the  establishment  there  of  the  Brothertown  clan.  At  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution  the  Six  Nations,  a  powerful  and 
warlike  Indian  confederacy,  were  at  first  much  inclined  to  favor  the  English 
side  and  to  become  the  allies  of  the  British  forces  of  Canada,  and  to  this 
end  were  strongly  tempted  by  the  insidious  wiles  of  British  emissaries,  backed 
by  the  glittering  display  and  lavish  use  of  British  gold. 

Ae:ainst  this  danger  both  Johnson  and  Occom  exerted  the  whole  weight 
of  their  great  moral  powers  and  their  wide  influence,  the  former  especially 
appealing  for  help,  in  averting  this  impending  danger,  to  Governor  Trumbull 
and  other  friends  here,  and  to  the  Assembly.  His  zeal  and  patriotic  efforts 
attracted  the  attention  of  Gen.  Washington,  and  while  at  Cambridge,  direct- 
ing the  siesre  of  Boston,  he  wrote  him  a  letter  with  his  own  hand,  dated  Feb. 
20,  1776.  thanking  him  for  his  patriotic  and  important  services,  and  in  closing 
he  says.  "Tell  the  Indians  that  we  do  not  ask  them  to  take  up  the  hatchet  for 
us  unless  thev  choose  it,  we  only  desire  that  they  will  not  fight  against  us. 
We  want  that  the  chain  of  friendship  should  always  remain  bright  between 
our  friends,  the  Six  Nations,  and  us.  We  recommend  you  to  them,  and  hope 
by  spreading  the  truths  of  the  gospel  among  them  it  will  always  keep  the 
chain  bright." 

Another  remarkable  illustration  of  the   importance  of  education   to  our 


58  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

forefathers  is  found  in  a  sermon  of  Rev.  Dr.  Nott,  pastor  of  the  Franklin 
church  from  1782  till  1852.  This  pastorate  of  seventy  years,  linked  with 
those  of  Rev.  Benjamin  Lord  and  Rev.  Dr.  .Strong  of  Norwich,  forms  a  note- 
worthy chain  of  human  lives.  Together  they  served  their  parishes  187  years! 
One  succeeded  another  in  turn  in  such  a  manner  that  these  three  men,  each 
well  acquainted  with  the  successor  in  the  ministry  though  not  in  the  same 
parish,  covered,  and  might  well  have  conveyed  by  word  of  mouth,  the  history 
of  New  London  county  from  1717  to  1852!  The  sermon  referred  to  was 
delivered  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Dr.  Nott's  settlement  at  Franklin. 
He  says: 

That  I  have  contributed  to  the  general  improvement  of  my  people  in  knowledge,  par- 
ticularly the  children  and  youth — as  I  have  statedly  visited  the  schools  twice,  usually  three 
times  a  year,  and  likewise  taught  many  of  the  young  men  Arithmetic,  English  Grammar, 
and  Geography — I  presume  none  will  question.  In  the  mean  time,  I  trust  I  have  con- 
tributed, in  a  degree,  to  the  improvement  of  many  others.  More  than  forty  young  men,  ii> 
whole  or  in  part,  have  fitted  for  college  under  my  direction ;  twenty  belonged  to  this 
town.  A  considerable  number  of  the  whole  entered  quite  advanced  in  standing.  About 
half  a  dozen  of  the  scholars,  who  belonged  to  different  colleges,  have  likewise  spent  con- 
siderable time  with  me;  some  of  them  a  term  or  two.  .About  the  same  number  of  young 
gentlemen  have  studied  theology  with  me.  A  large  number  of  school-masters,  and  some 
persons  who  have  studied  physic,  made  merchants,  mechanics,  and  farmers,  I  have  aided, 
more  or  less,  in  their  education.  I  would  be  far  from  saying:  "By  the  strength  of  my 
hand  I  have  done  it,  and  by  my  wisdom."  I  would,  with  the  most  lively  gratitude,  say, 
I  have  done  it  by  the  strength  of  that  Almighty  Being !  "^^'ho  raiseth  up  the  poor  out 
of  the  dust,  and  lifteth  the  beggar  out  of  the  dunghill:  and  I  mention  it  in  this  public 
manner  that  he  may  have  the  glory.  (Since  I  began  to  fit  for  college,  April,  1774,  I  have 
contributed  something  towards  the  education,  as  nearly  as  I  can  recollect,  of  between  two 
and  three  hundred  gentlemen,  ladies,  or  children.)  As  a  little  wheel  in  mechanism  sometimes 
puts  in  motion  one  much  larger,  I  have  been  instrumental,  in  the  hand  of  Divine  Providence, 
of  bringing  forward  into  public  life  some  persons  who  have  given  a  far  wider  spread  to 
knowledge  than  I  was  ever  able  to  do ;  and  some,  who  now  hold  in  society-,  and  in  the  Church 
of  Christ,  a  respectable  standing.  A  wheel  in  the  middle  of  a  wheel.  O,  the  depths  of  the 
riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  How  unsearchable  are  his  judgments, 
and  his  ways  past  finding  out. 

The  first  music  school  in  this  country  was  founded  by  Mr.  Oramel  Whit- 
tlesey at  Salem,  in  1835,  under  the  name  of  Music  Vale  Seminary,  and  was 
maintained  with  great  success  for  over  forty  years.  Here  were  educated  in 
music  many  hundred  young  women  from  different  parts  of  the  countr}^ 

At  the  time  when  public  high  schools  w'ere  starting  in  Massachusetts 
under  the  leadership  of  Horace  Mann  and  others,  public-spirited  citizens  in 
New  London  count}'  had  founded  or  soon  afterwards  founded  private  insti- 
tutions of  high  school  grade.  As  time  has  passed,  these  institutions  have 
survived,  doing  their  work  under  private  management,  partly  by  means  of 
their  original  funds  and  partly  by  funds  given  by  the  public  for  the  secondary 
education  of  boys  and  girls.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  of  the  seven  private 
schools  recognized  by  the  State  of  Connecticut  as  doing  satisfactorily  the 
work  of  a  public  high  school,  five  are  found  in  New  London  county.  A  brief 
statement  about  each  school  has  been  prepared  by  the  principal  or  by  a 
trustee  of  each  and  will  be  found  elsewhere  in  this  work. 


CHAPTER  III 

AN  ERA  OF  UNREST 

The  War  for  Independence — The  Battle  of  Groton  Heights — Narratives  of  Jonathan 
Rathbun,  Rufus  Avery  and  Stephen  Hempstead — The  British  Fleet  off  New  London 
— The  War  Marks  the  Beginning  of  Manufacture  and  Whaling. 

Much  of  the  detail  of  local  history  will  be  found  under  the  separate  his- 
tories of  various  towns.  New  London  county  sent  its  full  quota  and  more  for 
every  colonial  enterprise.  It  was  a  large  partaker  in  all  the  efforts  that  make 
Connecticut  history  glorious.    We  quote  from  Mr.  Daniel  Howard : 

In  the  da}  s  of  the  Revolution,  "Brother  Jonathan"  of  Lebanon  was  Wash- 
ington's right  hand  man.  It  used  to  be  the  custom  to  call  the  United  States 
"Brother  Jonathan,"  just  as  we  now  call  the  country  by  the  nickname  of 
"Uncle  Sam."  We  do  not  know  who  was  the  first  man  to  apply  the  name  to 
our  country,  but  it  was  George  Washington  who  caused  the  name  to  be 
adopted. 

When  the  Revolutionary  War  broke  out  in  the  thirteen  colonies  there 
was  one  governor  and  only  one  who  joined  the  patriots  in  their  struggle 
against  the  British  king  and  his  tyranny.  That  Governor  was  Jonathan  Trum- 
bull of  Connecticut.  When  we  read  of  what  he  did  to  help  Washington  and 
his  army,  we  can  realize  why  Washington  loved  him.  trusted  him,  and  looked 
to  him  for  help  and  advice  whenever  he  was  in  trouble. 

The  War  for  Independence  began  in  1775,  and  Governor  Trumbull  was 
among  the  first  men  to  encourage  volunteers  to  go  to  Boston  and  Cambridge 
in  order  to  help  form  the  American  army.  The  next  year,  when  Washington's 
arm\'  went  to  New  York,  more  than  half  of  his  17.000  men  were  from  Con- 
necticut. Throughout  the  six  years  of  the  war,  Washington  depended  upon 
Jonathan  Trumbull  more  than  he  did  upon  any  other  man  to  help  him  collect 
troops,  provide  food,  clothing,  and  ammunition,  write  letters  to  committees 
of  safety  for  their  advice  and  assistance  in  carying  on  the  war,  and  to  do 
everything  that  was  necessary  to  keep  the  soldiers  and  the  patriots  united 
and  loyal  to  the  army  and  its  commander-in-chief.  Washington  soon  formed 
the  habit  of  saying  whenever  he  needed  advice  or  assistance,  "Let  us  consult 
Brother  Jonathan."  "Brother  Jonathan"  seemed  to  represent  the  whole  coun- 
try, and  in  time  public  speakers,  poets,  authors,  newspaper  men,  in  fact  every- 
bod)%  came  to  use  "Brother  Jonathan"  as  a  nickname  for  the  United  States. 

Nathan  Hale's  name  will  be  honored  as  long  as  America  endures.  It  was 
April  20,  1775,  in  the  Union  Grammar  School  at  New  London,  about  thirty 
boys  were  busy  with  their  lessons.  We  can  imagine  how  diligently  they  were 
working,  for  many  of  them  were  anxious  to  enter  college,  win  honors,  and 
eventually  become  as  popular  and  highly  esteemed  as  was  their  young  teacher, 
whom  they  idolized.     This  teacher  was  Nathan  Hale. 

Young  Hale,  although  not  quite  twenty  years  of  age,  had  already  won 
high  reputation  as  a  scholar,  a  teacher,  a  thinker,  and  a  leader  among  the 
people.  He  was  born  in  the  town  of  Coventry.  June  6,  1775.  He  grew  up 
in  a  typical  Connecticut  home.  Having  been  prepared  for  college  by  his  good 
pastor,  he  was  graduated  from  Yale  University  in  1773  with  the  highest 
honors.  The  first  year  after  his  graduation  he  taught  in  the  little  red  school 
house  at  East  Haddam.     His  success  there  led  to  his  engagement  the  next 


6o  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

year  as  teacher  of  the  fine  new  grammar  school  at  New  London.  He  was 
tall,  broad-shouldered,  graceful.  Litelligence  beamed  from  his  large  blue 
eyes,  and  noble,  good-natured  face.  A  leader  in  athletics  among  the  bo3^s,  a 
leader  in  the  discussion  of  public  questions  among  the  men,  it  was  no  wonder 
that  everybody  loved  him. 

The  political  troubles  between  the  American  Colonies  and  England  had 
made  him  a  bold  and  outspoken  patriot,  and  often  since  the  day  he  entered 
college  his  eloquent  words  had  roused  his  hearers  to  the  highest  enthusiasm 
in  defense  of  their  rights  and  liberties.  On  this  particular  morning  his 
thoughts  were  with  his  pupils  and  their  schoolroom  discussions.  Suddenly 
there  was  heard  the  sound  of  excited  voices  in  the  street.  One  window  was 
open,  and  the  boys  caught  some  words  that  filled  them  with  excitement. 
The  teacher  counseled  them  not  to  let  their  thoughts  wander  from  their 
lessons. 

The  noise  and  excitement  outside  the  building  continued.  The  boys  were 
too  much  disturbed  to  work,  and  the  teacher  himself  found  that  he  was 
as  anxious  as  the  boj's  to  know  what  was  happening.  He  closed  his  school, 
and  with  his  boys  rushed  toward  the  crowd  that  had  surrounded  the  statue 
of  King  George.  A  man  on  horseback  was  speaking,  but  Hale  was  too  far 
away  to  hear  what  he  was  saying.  When  the  speech  was  finished,  the  crowd 
sent  up  a  great  shout.  "What  is  it  all  about  "  asked  Hale.  "Haven't  you 
heard?  It  is  a  message  from  Lexington,  where  the  British  have  fallen  on  our 
brothers  and  sought  to  cut  them  to  pieces.  Yesterday  there  was  a  battle." 
"Has  it  come  to  that?"  asked  Hale  in  astonishment.  "Hush!  Hark!  he  is 
going  to  speak  again.  No,  he  is  falling  from  his  horse.  This  way!!  Bring 
him  into  the  tavern.  Give  him  something  to  revive  him.  No  wonder  after 
such  a  ride !"  Another  man  addressed  the  crowd :  "Let  all  who  wish  to  form 
some  plan  to  help  Massachusetts,  meet  me  tonight  at  Miner's  Tavern." 

Hale  went  to  his  lodgings.  He  was  so  absorbed  with  the  terrible  news 
that  had  come  from  Lexington  that  he  thought  no  more  of  school.  In  the 
evening  he  joined  the  throng  of  serious,  thoughtful  men,  assembled  at  Miner's 
Tavern.  After  listening  to  an  earnest  speech  by  the  Hon.  Richard  Law,  Hale 
asked  permission  to  speak.  He  ascended  the  platform  and  began  to  talk.  As 
they  listened  to  his  eloquence  and  observed  his  manly  bearing,  his  hearers 
forgot  all  else  in  their  desire  to  seize  their  muskets  and  swords  and  march  to 
the  aid  of  their  countrymen  in  Massachusetts.  Hale  closed  with  these  words: 
"Let  us  not  lay  down  our  arms  until  we  have  gained  our  Independence !" 
Independence!  That  was  a  new  thought.  But  it  was  a  thought  that  would 
soon  be  in  thousands  of  minds. 

That  night  Hale  made  arrangements  to  go  with  the  two  companies  of 
soldiers  who  were  to  be  sent  to  Cambridge.  The  following  morning  they 
left  New  London  at  sunrise.  At  Cambridge,  Hale  became  a  favorite  with  the 
officers  and  men.  For  months  he  worked  hard  to  train  and  exercise  his  com- 
pany of  soldiers,  and  his  bravery,  daring  and  resourcefulness  won  compli- 
ments from  his  commander-in-chief,  \\^ashington. 

The  next  year,  1776,  Washington's  army  moved  from  Boston  to  New 
York  and  fought  the  British  at  Long  Island.  The  British  won  the  battle, 
and  the  Americans  were  forced  to  retreat  to  Harlem  Heights,  leaving  New 
York  City  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Washington  was  in  great  distress. 
If  he  onh-  knew  the  plans  of  the  British,  he  might  prepare  his  army  to  meet 
them.  If  he  could  learn  just  how  the  city  was  fortified  and  guarded,  he 
might  then  capture  it.  There  was  only  one  way  to  get  the  needed  information. 
He  must  send  a  spy  into  the  British  camp.  That  spy  must  be  no  ordinary 
soldier.     He  must  be  skilled  in  military  afifairs,  able  to  make  drawings  and 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  6i 

descriptions  of  the  fortifications,  capable  of  understanding  and  reporting 
everything  he  saw,  and  above  all  else  fearless  and  willing  to  risk  his  life. 

Washington  asked  Colonel  Knowlton  to  endeavor  to  find  such  a  man 
among  the  officers.  Colonel  Knowlton  called  the  officers  together  and  asked 
for  a  volunteer  to  undertake  the  dangerous  task.  No  one  responded.  It  was 
the  disgrace  of  being  a  spy  that  held  them  back.  The  Colonel  pleaded  elo- 
quently for  someone  to  undertake  the  work  on  which  the  fate  of  the  whole 
army  might  depend.  Still,  no  answer.  Nathan  Hale,  who  had  just  risen 
from  a  sick  bed.  was  seen  approaching.  He  asked,  "What  is  going  on?" 
Thev  told  him.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation,  he  exclaimed :  "I  will  under- 
take it." 

Captain  Hull,  his  friend  and  former  classmate  in  college,  exclaimed,  "You 
do  not  know  what  you  say.  You  a  spy !"  Another  of  the  officers  cried  out, 
"There  is  someone  other  than  you  for  such  service."  "Who?"  asked  Hale. 
There  was  no  answer. 

Hale  repeated  his  ofTer,  saying,  "I  wish  to  be  useful,  and  every  kind  of 
service  for  the  public  becomes  honorable  by  being  necessary."  His  brother 
officers  said  no  more.  That  afternoon  Hale  reported  to  Washington  and 
received  his  instructions.  With  a  friend  he  left  the  room  and  walked  from 
Harlem  Heights  to  Norwalk,  fifty  miles  up  the  Sound  on  the  Connecticut 
shore.  There  he  disguised  himself  as  a  Tory  schoolmaster,  and  alone  boarded 
a  sloop  that  took  him  to  Huntington,  Long  Island.  Having  landed  near  the 
Widow  Chichester's  tavern,  and  knowing  this  to  be  a  resort  for  Tories  and 
friends  of  the  British,  he  passed  by  and  made  his  first  stop  at  the  home  of 
William  Johnson,  about  a  mile  from  his  landing  place.  After  resting  a  few 
hours  and  obtaining  such  information  as  he  could  about  the  journey  he  wished 
to  make,  he  set  out  for  the  British  camp,  claiming  to  be  looking  for  a  position 
to  teach.  He  visited  the  British  camp  on  Long  Island,  and  crossed  over  to 
New  York  City,  where  the  British  had  taken  full  possession  since  he  left 
Washington's  headquarters.  Here  he  spent  some  days  visiting  with  the 
soldiers.  All  this  time  he  was  studying  the  plans  of  the  fortifications,  and 
whenever  he  had  an  opportunity  to  be  alone  he  drew  sketches  and  wrote  out 
in  Latin  descriptions  of  what  he  had  seen. 

When  he  could  learn  no  more,  with  these  maps  and  sketches  concealed 
in  his  shoes,  he  started  on  his  homeward  journey.  In  safety  he  found  his 
way  back  to  Huntington,  where  he  arrived  in  the  morning,  and  expecting  a 
boat  to  meet  him.  It  was  very  early  when  he  arrived,  and  seeing  no  boat  he 
decided  to  go  to  the  Tory  tavern  for  breakfast.  At  the  tavern  he  talked  with 
the  Tories,  but  he  did  not  notice  that  one  of  them  left  the  room  after  he 
entered.  Several  hours  later  a  boat  was  seen  approaching.  The  Tories  at 
once  scattered,  fearing  the  boat  might  contain  Connecticut  Yankees,  whom 
they  did  not  wish  to  meet.  Hale  assured  them  that  the  Yankees  would  not 
hurt  a  poor  schoolmaster,  and  ofifercd  to  go  and  see  what  they  wanted. 

We  can  imagine  how  eagerly  he  hastened  to  the  edge  of  the  water,  ex- 
pecting to  meet  his  friends,  but  alas!  what  a  disappointment!  When  he  was 
within  range  of  the  boat's  crew  a  dozen  men  leveled  their  guns  at  him  and 
cried.  "Surrender  or  die!"     He  was  trapped. 

The  man  who  had  left  the  tavern  was  a  Tory  relative  who  had  recognized 
him  and  sent  word  to  a  British  ship.  The  commander  of  this  ship  had  sent 
the  boat  to  capture  Hale.  He  was  at  once  rowed  to  the  guardship,  "Halifax." 
"A.re  you  a  captain  in  the  Continental  army?"  asked  the  commander.  "I  am," 
replied  Hale.  "Why  are  you  disguised?"  was  the  next  question.  There  was 
no  answer.  "Search  him,"  ordered  the  commander.  The  papers  and  drawings 
were  found  in  his  shoes.     That  settled  it.     He  was  a  spy. 


62  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Hale  was  sent  at  once  to  the  headquarters  of  General  Howe  in  New 
York  City.  Howe  was  dumbfounded.  "Why  did  you,  a  man  of  learning  and 
fine  appearance,  attempt  this  sort  of  workr"  Hale  answered,  "I  am  serving 
my  country,  and  for  that  reason  I  will  do  any  service  that  my  country  de- 
mands." Howe  admired  his  spirit,  and  this  thought  came  into  his  head, 
"What  a  gain  if  this  man  would  serve  us.  Surely  ambition  and  place  can 
tempt  him."  "I  will  grant  you  full  pardon,  if  you  will  join  the  British  army, 
and  you  shall  be  speedily  promoted  to  a  high  position."  Hale  answered, 
"Nothing  so  increases  my  loyalty  to  my  country  as  this  temptation  to  for- 
sake her."  "Then  you  must  die  for  her,"  was  the  grim  response  of  General 
Howe. 

Turning  to  his  desk,  he  wrote  out  the  commitment,  which  directed 
William  Cunningham  to  receive  Nathan  Hale,  keep  him  in  custody  until 
morning,  and  then  see  that  he  was  hanged  by  the  neck  until  dead.  A  British 
officer  then  conducted  Hale  to  the  quarters  of  Cunningham,  the  provost  mar- 
shal. This  cruel  and  brutal  man  was  in  the  habit  of  treating  his  prisoners 
most  shamefully.  He  would  insult  them,  kick  them,  and  parade  them  up 
and  down  the  corridors,  with  Richmond,  his  negro  hangman,  carrying  a  coil 
of  rope  behind  them.  Many  were  hanged  in  the  yard  back  of  the  jail  and 
their  bodies  left  to  dangle  for  hours  where  other  prisoners  would  see  them 
and  shudder  at  the  sight. 

This  man  questioned  Hale  as  to  his  age  and  history,  and  read  the  death 
warrant  telling  him  that  he  was  to  die  at  daybreak.  Every  minute  of  that 
time  would  be  needed  to  say  good-bye  to  his  father,  brothers,  and  sisters,  and 
to  write  a  last  loving  letter  to  Alice  Adams  Ripley,  the  young  lady  who 
waited  in  her  Connecticut  home,  longing  and  hoping  for  the  time  when  he 
would  return  from  the  war  and  make  her  his  wife.  He  asked  that  his  hands 
might  be  untied  and  that  he  might  have  a  light  and  some  writing  materials. 
The  heartless  Cunningham  refused  his  request.  Hale  asked  for  a  Bible. 
Again  he  was  refused  with  jeers  and  insults.  He  was  placed  in  his  cell,  and 
after  Cunningham  had  fallen  into  a  drunken  stupor,  a  kind-hearted  British 
officer  who  was  his  guard  furnished  him  materials  and  a  light.  The  hours 
of  that  sad  night  were  passed  in  writing  his  last  letters  to  the  dear  ones 
at  home. 

At  daybreak  the  provost  came.  The  prisoner  had  not  slept,  but  was  ready. 
He  handed  his  letters  to  Cunningham,  who  opened  them,  read  them,  tore 
them  into  fragments,  and  stamped  upon  them,  saying  the  rebels  should  never 
see  such  letters.  No  one  should  ever  know  that  a  man  died  with  such  cour- 
age. Oh,  the  anguish  that  pierced  the  soul  of  Nathan  Hale !  Yet  he  gave 
no  sign  of  his  feelings. 

He  was  ordered  to  prepare  for  the  death  march.  He  asked  for  a  clergy- 
man, but  his  request  was  refused.  The  line  of  march  took  him  through  a 
vast  crowd  of  men  and  women  to  the  place  of  execution  in  Colonel  Rutger's 
apple  orchard.  Hale,  clothed  in  white,  with  his  arms  bound  behind  him,  was 
preceded  bv  a  file  of  soldiers.  The  soldiers  formed  a  hollow  square,  with 
an  apple  tree  in  the  center.  Underneath  the  tree  the  grave  had  been  dug. 
The  hangman  placed  his  ladder  against  a  limb  of  the  tree  and  adjusted  the 
rope.  Four  negroes  placed  the  coffin  beneath  the  hanging  noose.  Hale  was 
ordered  to  stand  upon  the  coffin.  While  the  final  preparations  were  being 
made,  he  stood  with  his  manly  form  erect  and  his  beautiful  face  illuminated 
with  the  glow  of  courage  and  heroism.  Even  the  hardest  of  the  soldiers  were 
awed  by  the  sight.  Cunningham  hoped  to  destroy  the  impression  produced 
by  the  sublime  spectacle  and  called  to  Hale  to  make  his  last  confession. 

The  martyr,  whose  face  had  been  turned  upward  in  prayer,  after  casting 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  63 

upon  Cimnincfham  a  look  of  unutterable  contempt,  turned  his  eyes  to  the 
spectators.  The  women  were  sobbing  and  the  men  had  turned  away  their 
faces.  All  became  silent  and  his  voice,  strong,  full,  and  ringing  with  the 
energy  of  courage  and  patriotism,  uttered  these  immortal  words:  "I  only 
regret  that  I  have  but  one  life  to  lose  for  my  Country !"  The  provost  was 
stunned.  His  rage  almost  choked  him.  As  soon  as  he  could  collect  himself 
he  roared,  "Swing  the  rebel  off!" 

Noble,  heroic  death !  Thus  passed  away  the  martyred  patriot  spy,  but 
his  name  will  live  forever  and  furnish  us  with  an  inspiration  for  great  and 
noble  deeds. 

The  battle  of  Groton  Heights  has  often  been  described.  But  the  account 
found  below,  by  Jonathan  Rathbun,  has  been  out  of  print  for  fifty  years: 

I  was  born  in  Colchester,  Connecticut,  in  1765.  When  16  years  of  age, 
I  joined  as  a  volunteer  a  company  of  militia,  belonging  to  my  native  town, 
and  marched  to  the  relief  of  New  London,  intelligence  having  just  reached 
us  of  an  attack  on  that  place  by  the  British  under  the  conduct  of  the  traitor 
Benedict  Arnold.  We  left  home  to  the  number  of  about  one  hundred  men 
early  in  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  September,  1781,  the  day  after  the  battle. 
Oo  our  arrival  in  New  London  we  witnessed  a  scene  of  suffering  and  horror 
which  surpasses  description.  The  enemy  were  not  to  be  found,  but  they  had 
left  behind  them  the  marks  of  their  barbarism  and  cruelty.  The  city  was  in 
ashes.  More  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  naked  chimneys  were  standing  in 
the  midst  of  the  smoking  ruins  of  stores  and  dwelling  houses.  Very  little 
property  had  escaped  the  conflagration  except  a  part  of  the  shipping  which, 
on  the  first  alarm,  was  sent  up  the  river.  But  though  the  city  was  destroyed, 
it  was  far  from  being  deserted.  Numerous  companies  of  militia  from  the 
neighborhood  were  pouring  into  the  town ;  and  the  inhabitants,  who  had  fled 
from  their  burning  dwellings,  were  returning  to  gaze  with  anguish  on  the 
worthless  remains  of  their  property.  Women  were  seen  walking  with  con- 
sternation and  despair  depicted  in  their  countenances,  leading  or  carrying 
in  their  arms  their  fatherless  and  houseless  babes,  who  in  a  few  short  hours 
had  been  bereaved  of  all  that  was  dear  on  earth.  Their  homes,  their  pro- 
visions and  even  their  apparel,  were  the  spoils  of  the  enemy  or  lay  in  ashes 
at  their  feet.  Some  were  inquiring  with  the  deepest  distress  for  the  mangled 
bodies  of  their  friends,  while  others  were  seen  following  the  carts  which  bore 
their  murdered  fathers,  husbands  or  brothers  to  the  grave.  More  than  forty 
widows  were  made  on  that  fatal  day.  Never  can  I  forget  the  tears,  the  sobs, 
the  shrieks  of  woe  which  fell  from  the  kindred  of  our  brave  countrymen  who 
then  gave  their  lives  to  achieve  our  national  independence.  It  was  my  melan- 
choly duty  to  assist  in  the  burial  of  the  dead,  which  brought  me  directly  into 
the  midst  of  these  heart-rending  scenes  where  the  wife  first  recognized  her 
husband,  the  mother  her  son,  the  sister  her  brother,  in  the  body  of  a  mangled 
soldier,  so  disfigured  with  wounds  and  clotted  with  blood  and  dust  as  to  be 
scarcely  known !  Often  on  my  visits  to  New  London  Tiave  I  walked  near  the 
spot  where  I  helped  to  inter  my  slaughtered  countrymen ;  and.  though  many 
years  have  since  rolled  away,  the  recollection  is  still  fresh  in  my  mind,  awak- 
ening anew  the  strong  feelings  of  sympathy  I  then  felt,  and  rousing  into 
activity  the  love  of  my  country. 

I  recollect  several  interesting  facts  connected  with  the  capture  of  Fort 
Griswold  and  the  burning  of  New  London,  which  I  believe  are  not  mentioned 
in  the  narratives  of  Messrs.  Avery  and  Hempstead. 

After  the  capture  of  the  fort  and  the  massacre  which  followed,  the  enemy 


64  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

laid  a  line  of  powder  from  the  magazine  of  the  fort  to  the  sea,  intending  to 
blow  up  the  fort,  and  complete  the  destruction  of  the  wounded  within  and 
around  it.  Stillman  Hotman,  who  lay  not  far  distant,  wounded  by  three 
strokes  of  the  ba3'onet  in  his  body,  proposed  to  a  wounded  man  near  him  to 
crawl  to  this  line  and  saturate  the  powder  with  their  blood,  and  thus  save 
the  magazine  and  fort,  and  perhaps  the  lives  of  some  of  their  comrades  not 
mortally  wounded.  He  alone  succeeded  in  reaching  the  line,  where  he  was 
found  dead  lying  on  the  powder,  which  was  completely  wet  with  his  blood. 
I  do  not  find  his  name  among  the  killed  in  the  list  of  Mr.  Avery. 

Another  fact  of  a  different  character  was  currently  reported  at  the  time 
and  deserves  to  be  recorded  to  the  deeper  disgrace  of  the  infamous  Arnoldi 
He  had  a  sister  living  in  New  London,  with  whom  he  dined  on  the  day  of 
the  battle,  and  whose  house  was  set  fire  to,  as  is  supposed,  by  his  orders,  irri- 
mediately  afterwards.  Perhaps  he  found  her  too  much  of  a  patriot  for  his 
taste,  and  took  this  step  in  revenge. 

The  next  year,  1782,  I  was  led  by  the  spirit  which  the  scenes  I  had  wit- 
nessed in  Xew  London  had  fanned  into  a  flame,  to  leave  my  father's  house 
and  the  peaceful  pursuits  of  agriculture,  and  to  enlist  as  a  private  in  the 
Connecticut  State  troops.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  impressive  circumstances 
under  which  I  took  the  soldier's  oath.  With  five  others  of  my  townsmen  who 
enlisted  with  me,  I  was  marched  into  the  meeting  house  on  the  first  !\Ionday 
in  April,  it  being  Freeman's  Day,  and  there  in  the  presence  of  a  large  con- 
course of  people  we  swore  to  discharge  our  duty  faithfully.  We  were  ordered 
to  Fort  Stanwich,  in  Stamford,  Connecticut,  w'here  I  remained  during  all  but 
the  last  month  of  my  term  of  service.  Here  I  was  subjected  to  the  usual 
hardships  of  military  life.  Many  a  time  have  I  been  out  for  several  daj-s  on 
scouting  parties,  sometimes  to  the  distance  of  twenty-five  miles.  These 
were  not  only  attended  with  fatigue,  cold  and  hunger,  but  with  no  little  peril 
of  life.  On  one  occasion  a  rifle  ball  passed  through  my  hat  and  cut  away  the 
hair  of  my  head,  but  a  kind  Providence  protected  me. 

A  party  of  fourteen  men  under  Lewis  Smith  were  surprised  by  a  body 
of  mounted  troops  to  the  number  of  sixty,  by  whom  they  w-ere  ordered  to 
surrender.  Lewis  Smith,  perceiving  the  hopelessness  of  resistance  against 
such  an  overwhelming  force,  inquired  of  the  British  officer  in  command 
whether  if  they  should  surrender  they  would  be  treated  as  prisoners  of  war. 
The  answer  was.  "Yes."  biit  no  sooner  had  they  lowered  their  muskets  than 
the  enemy  shot  them  down. 

As  a  specimen  of  the  hardships  to  which  the  private  soldier  in  time  of 
war  is  constantly  liable,  I  maj'  mention  the  following:  One  evening  the 
orderly  sergeants  passed  around  among  the  men  and  with  a  whisper  com- 
manded us  to  equip  ourselves  without  noise :  and  then  we  were  marched  out 
of  the  fort  to  a  woods  two  miles  distant  and  ordered  to  lie  down  on  the  frozen 
ground,  where  we  passed  a  bitter  cold  night  with  only  a  single  blanket  and 
our  overcoats  to  protect  us.  We  afterwards  learned  that  this  step  was  taken 
to  avoid  the  enemy,  who  it  was  reported  were  that  night  to  attack  the  fort 
with  an  overwhelming  force.  From  such  exposures  and  hardships  as  these 
my  constitution  received  a  shock  from  which  I  have  never  recovered.  The 
sickness  of  my  father  Avas  considered  a  sufficient  reason  for  giving  me  a  dis- 
charge; and  after  eleven  months'  service  I  left  Stamford  for  Colchester.  On 
reaching  home  I  was  immediately  taken  sick,  and  for  six  months  was  unable 
to  do  any  business.  From  that  time  mingled  mercies  and  misfortunes  have 
attended  me.  The  infirmities  thus  contracted  in  the  service  of  my  country 
disabled  me  from  arduous  manual  labor,  and  much  of  m}'  life  has  therefore 
been  spent  in  trade  and  other  light  employments.     My  heaviest  misfortune, 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  65 

however,  has  been  the  sickness  of  my  excellent  wife,  who  for  forty  years  has 
been  confined  to  her  bed,  and  for  whose  medication  and  comfort,  with  the 
other  expenses  of  my  family,  the  earnings  of  my  industry  have  proved  in- 
sufficient, especially  since  the  infirmities  of  old  age  have  come  upon  me.  But 
of  none  of  these  things  do  I  complain.  They  are  wisely  appointed,  and 
have  been  greatly  alleviated  by  the  kindness  of  a  generous  community.  I 
mention  them  for  the  sole  object  of  interesting  my  countrymen  in  my  present 
eflfort  to  supply  my  wants  through  this  little  book. 

The  following  narrative  by  Rufus  Avery,  orderly  sergeant  under  Captain 
William  Latham,  containing  an  account  of  the  transactions  at  New  London 
and  Groton  on  the  6th  of  September,  1781,  is  in  his  own  words: 

I  had  charge  of  the  garrison  the  night  previous  to  the  attack.    The  enemy 
had  not  yet  appeared  near  us,  nor  did  we  expect  them  at  this  time  more  than 
ever ;  but  it  is  true  "we  know  not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow."     About  3 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  as  soon  as  daylight  appeared,  so  as  I  could  look  off, 
I  saw  the  fleet  in  the  harbor,  a  little  distance  below  the  light  house;  it  con- 
sisted of  thirty-two  in  number — ships,  brigs,  schooners  and  sloops.     It  may 
well  be  imagined  that  a  shock  of  consternation  and  a  thrill  of  dread  appre- 
hension flashed  over  me.    I  immediately  sent  for  Capt.  William  Latham,  who 
was  captain  of  said  fort,  and  who  was  near  by.     He  came  and  saw  the  fleet, 
and  sent  notice  to  Colonel  Ledyard,  who  was  commander  of  the  harbor,  and 
also  of  Forts  Griswold  and  Trumbull.    He  ordered  two  large  guns  to  be  loaded 
with   heavy   charges   of   good   powder,   (S:c.      Captain   William   Latham   took 
charge  of  the  one  which  was  to  be  discharged  from  the  northeast  part  of  the 
fort,  and  I  had  to  attend  the  other  on  the  west  side,  and  thus  we  as  speedily 
as  possible  prepared  to  give  alarm  to  the  vicinity,  as  was  to  be  expected  in 
case  of  danger,  two  guns  being  the  specified  signal  for  alarm  in  distress.     But 
a  difficulty  now  arose  from  having  all  our  plans  communicated  by  a  traitor! 
The  enemy  understood  our  signal  w-as  two  regular  guns,  and  they  fired  a 
third,  which  broke  our  alarm,  and  caused  it  to  signify  good  news  or  a  prize, 
and  thus  it  was  understood  b}'  our  troops,  and  several  companies  which  were 
lying  back  ready  to  come  to  our  assistance  in  case  of  necessity  were  by  this 
measure  deterred  from  coming.     The  reader  may  well  suppose,  though  time 
would  not  permit  us  to  consider  or  anticipate  long,  that  the  sense  of  our 
kelplessness  without  additional  strength  and  arms  was  dreadful ;  but  the  try- 
ing events  of  the  few  coming  hours  we  had  not  known!     Colonel   Ledyard 
now  sent  expresses  from  both  forts,  to  call  on  every  militia  captain  to  hurry 
with  their  companies  to  the  forts.     But  few  came ;  their  excuse  was  that  it 
was  but  a  false  alarm,  or  for  some  trifling  alarm.     The  enemy's  boats  now 
approached  and  landed   eight  hundred   officers   and   men,  some   horses,   car- 
riages and  cannon,  on  the  Groton  side  of  the  river,  about  8  o'clock  in  the 
morning;  and   another  division   on   the  New   London   side,  below  the  light 
house,  consisting  of  about  seven  hundred  officers  and  men.     The  army  on 
Groton  banks  was  divided  into  two  divisions.     Colonel  Ayres  took  command 
of  the  division  southeast  of  the  forts,  consisting  of  about  half,  sheltering  them 
behind   a   ledge  of  rocks   about   one  hundred   and   thirty   rods   back ;    Major 
Montgomery,  with  his  division  about  one  hundred   and  fifty  rods  from  the 
fort,  behind  a  high  hill.     The  army  on  New  London  side  of  the  river  had 
better  and  more  accommodating  land  to  march  on  than  that  on  Groton  side. 
As  soon  as  their  army  had  got  opposite  Fort  Trumbull,  they  divided,  and 
one  part  proceeded  to  the  city  of  New  London,  plundered  and  set  fire  to  the 
shipping  and  buildings,  the  rest  marched  down  to  Fort  Trumbull.     Captain 
N.L.— 1-5 


66  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Adam  Shapley,  who  commanded,  seeing-  that  he  was  likely  to  be  overpowered 
by  the  enemy,  spiked  his  cannon  and  embarked  on  board  the  boats  which 
had  been  prepared  for  him  in  case  of  necessity ;  but  the  enemy  were  so 
quick  upon  him  that  before  he  and  his  little  handful  of  men  could  get  out  of 
the  reach  of  their  guns,  seven  men  were  badly  wounded  in  the  boats.  The 
remaining  ones  reached  Fort  Griswold,  where,  poor  fellows,  they  met  a 
mortal  blow. 

Ayres  and  Montgomery  got  their  army  stationed  about  9  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  When  they  appeared  in  sight,  we  threw  a  number  of  shots  among 
them,  but  they  would  immediately  contrive  to  disappear  behind  their  hills. 
About  10  o'clock  they  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  fort. 
When  the  flag  was  within  about  forty  rods  from  the  fort,  we  sent  a  musket 
ball  in  front  of  them,  and  brought  them  to  a  stand.  Col.  Ledyard  called  a 
council  of  war  to  ascertain  the  minds  of  his  officers  and  friends  about  what 
was  best  to  be  done  in  this  momentous  hour,  when  every  moment  indicated  a 
bloody  and  decisive  battle.  They  all  agreed  in  council  to  send  a  flag  to  them. 
They  did  so,  choosing  Capt.  Elijah  Avery,  Capt.  Amos  Staunton,  and  Capt. 
John  Williams,  who  went  immediately  to  meet  the  British  flag  and  receive 
their  demand,  which  was  to  give  up  the  Fort  to  them.  The  council  was  then 
inquired  of  what  was  to  be  done,  and  the  answer  returned  to  the  British 
flag  was  that  "the  Fort  would  not  be  given  up  to  the  British."  The  flag  then 
returned  to  their  division  commanded  by  Ayres,  but  soon  returned  to  us 
again ;  when  about  a  proper  distance  our  flag  met  them  and  attended  to 
their  summons,  and  came  back  to  inform  Col.  Ledyard  that  the  enemy 
declared  that  "if  they  were  obliged  to  take  it  by  storm,  they  should  put  the 
Martial  Law  in  full  force,"  that  is,  "what  they  did  not  kill  by  ball,  they  should 
put  to  death  by  sword  and  bayonet!"  Col.  Ledyard  sent  back  the  decisive 
answer  that  "we  should  not  give  up  the  Fort  to  them,  let  the  consequences 
be  what  they  would." 

While  these  flags  were  passing  and  repassing,  we  were  exchanging  shots 
with  the  British  at  Fort  Trumbull,  as  they  had  got  possession  of  it  before 
the  battle  commenced  in  action  at  Fort  Griswold.  We  could  throw  our  shot 
into  Fort  Trumbull  without  any  difficulty,  but  the  British  could  not  cause 
theirs  to  enter  Fort  Griswold,  because  they  could  not  aim  high  enough.  They 
had  got  possession  and  in  use  some  of  our  best  pieces  and  ammunition,  which 
were  left  in  Fort  Trumbull,  when  Captain  Shapley  left  it  and  retreated.  About 
II  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  they  perceived  what  we  were  about  to  do, 
they  started  with  both  their  divisions.  Colonel  Ayres  advancing  with  his  in 
solid  columns.  As  soon  as  they  reached  the  level  ground  and  in  a  proper 
range,  we  saluted  them  with  an  eighteen-pounder,  then  loaded  with  two  bags 
of  grape  shot.  Capt.  Elias  H.  Halsey  was  the  one  who  directed  the  guns,  and 
took  aim  at  the  enemy.  He  had  long  practiced  on  board  a  privateer,  and 
manifested  his  skill  at  this  time.  I  was  at  the  gun  with  others  when  it  was 
discharged  into  the  British  ranks,  and  it  cleared  a  very  wide  space  in  their 
solid  columns.  It  has  been  reported  by  good  authority  that  about  twenty 
were  killed  and  wounded  by  that  one  discharge  of  grape  shot.  As  soon  as 
the  column  was  broken  by  loss  of  men  and  officers,  they  were  seen  to  scatter 
and  trail  arms,  coming  on  with  a  quick  step  towards  the  fort,  inclining  to 
the  west.  We  continued  firing,  but  they  advanced  upon  the  south  and  west 
sides  of  the  fort.  Colonel  Ayres  was  mortally  wounded.  ^Lijor  Montgomery 
now  advanced  with  his  division,  coming  on  in  solid  columns,  bearing  around 
to  the  north,  until  they  got  east  of  the  redoubt  or  battery,  which  was  east 
of  the  fort,  then  marching  with  a  quick  step  into  the  battery.  Here  we  sent 
among  them  large  and  repeated  charges  of  grape  shot  which  destroyed  a 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  67 

number,  as  we  could  perceive  them  thinned  and  broken.  Then  they  started 
for  the  fort,  a  part  of  them  in  platoons,  discharging  their  guns;  and  some  of 
the  officers  and  men  scattering,  they  came  around  on  the  east  and  north 
side  of  the  fort.  Here  Major  Montgomery  fell,  near  the  northeast  part  of 
the  fort.  We  might  suppose  the  loss  of  their  commanders  might  have  dis- 
mayed them,  but  they  had  proceeded  so  far,  and  the  excitement  and  deter- 
mination on  slaughter  was  so  great,  they  could  not  be  prevented.  As  sooft 
as  their  army  had  entirely  surrounded  the  garrison,  a  man  attempted  to  open 
the  gates;  but  he  lost  his  life  in  a  moment,  before  he  could  succeed.  There 
was  hard  fighting  and  shocking  slaughter,  and  much  blood  spilt  before  another 
attempt  was  made  to  open  the  gates,  which  was  at  this  time  successful ;  for 
our  little  number,  which  was  only  one  hundred  and  fifty-five,  officers  and 
privates  (the  most  of  them  volunteers),  were  by  this  time  overpowered.  There 
was  then  no  block  house  on  the  parade  as  there  is  now,  so  that  the  enemy 
had  every  chance  to  wound  and  kill  every  man.  When  they  had  overpowered 
us  and  driven  us  from  our  station  at  the  breastwork  into  the  fort,  and  Colonel 
Ledyard  saw  how  few  men  he  had  remaining  to  fight  with,  he  ceased  resist- 
ance. They  all  left  their  posts  and  went  on  to  the  open  parade  in  the  fort, 
where  the  enemy  had  a  fair  opportunity  to  massacre  us,  as  there  were  only 
six  of  us  to  an  hundred  of  them !  This,  this  was  a  moment  of  indescribable 
misery !  We  can  fight  with  good  hearts  while  hope  and  prospects  of  victory 
aid  us ;  but,  after  we  have  fought  and  bled,  and  availed  nothing,  to  yield  to 
be  massacred  by  the  boasting  enemy  "tries  men's  hearts!"  Our  ground  was 
drenched  with  human  gore,  our  wounded  and  dying  could  not  have  any 
attendance,  while  each  man  was  almost  hopeless  of  his  own  preservation ; 
but  our  country's  danger  caused  the  most  acute  anxiety.  Now  I  saw  the 
enemy  mount  the  parapets  like  so  many  madmen,  all  at  once,  seemingly. 
They  swung  their  hats  around,  and  then  discharged  their  guns  into  the  fort, 
and  those  who  had  not  fallen  by  ball  they  began  to  massacre  with  sword  and 
bayonet.  I  was  on  the  west  side  of  the  fort,  with  Capt.  Edward  Latham  and 
Mr.  C.  Latham,  standing  on  the  platform,  and  had  a  full  view  of  the  enemy's 
conduct.  I  had  then  a  hole  through  my  clothes  by  a  ball,  and  a  bayonet 
rent  through  my  coat  to  the  flesh.  The  enemy  approached  us,  knocked  down 
the  two  men  I  mentioned,  with  the  britch  (breech)  of  their  guns,  and  I 
expected  had  ended  their  lives,  but  they  did  not.  By  this  time  that  division 
which  had  been  commanded  by  Montgomery,  now  under  charge  of  Bloom- 
field,  unbolted  the  other  gates,  marched  into  the  Fort,  and  formed  into  a 
solid  column.  I  at  this  moment  left  my  station  and  went  across  the  parade 
towards  the  south  end  of  the  barracks.  I  noticed  Col.  William  Ledyard  on 
the  parade  stepping  towards  the  enemy  and  Bloomfield,  gently  raising  and 
lowering  his  sword  as  a  token  of  bowing  and  submission;  he  was  about  six 
feet  from  them  when  I  turned  my  eyes  off  from  him,  and  went  up  to  the 
door  of  the  barracks  and  looked  at  the  enemy,  who  were  discharging  their 
guns  through  the  windows.  It  was  but  a  moment  that  I  had  turned  my 
eyes  from  Col.  L.  and  saw  him  alive,  and  now  I  saw  him  weltering  in  his 
gore!  Oh,  the  hellish  spite  and  madness  of  a  man  that  will  murder  a  reason- 
able and  noble-hearted  officer,  in  the  act  of  submitting  and  surrendering!  I 
can  assure  my  countrymen  that  I  felt  the  thrill  of  such  a  horrid  deed  more 
than  the  honorable  and  martial-like  war  of  months !  We  are  informed  that 
the  wretch  who  murdered  him  exclaimed  as  he  came  near,  "Who  commands 
this  fort?"  Ledyard  handsomely  replied,  "I  did,  but  you  do  now,"  at  the  same 
moment  handing  him  his  sword,  which  the  unfeeling  villain  buried  in  his 
breast!  The  column  continued  marching  towards  the  south  end  of  the 
parade,  and  I  could  do  no  better  than  to  go  across  the  parade  before  them, 


68  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

amid  their  fire.     Thej^  discharged  three  platoons,  as  I  crossed  before  them 
at  this  time.     I  believe  there  were  not  less  than  five  or  six  hundred  of  the 
British  on  the  parade,  and  in  the  Fort.    They  killed  and  wounded  every  man 
they  possibly  could,  and  it  was  all  done  in  less  than  two  minutes !     I  had 
nothing  to  expect  but  to  drop  with  the  rest ;  one  mad  looking  fellow  put  his 
bayonet  to  my  side,  swearing,  "by  Jesus  he  would  skipper  me !"    I  looked  him 
earnestly  in  the  face  and  eyes,  and  begged  him  to  have  mercy  and  spare  my 
life!    I  must  say,  I  believe  God  prevented  him  from  killing  me,  for  he  put  his 
bayonet  three  times  into  me,  and  I  seemed  to  be  in  his  power,  as  well  as 
Lieut.  Enoch  Staunton,  who  was  stabbed  to  the  heart  and  fell  at  my  feet  at 
this  time.     I  think  no  scene  ever  exceeded  this  for  continued  and  barbarous 
massacre   after   surrender.     There   were   two   large   doors   to   the   Magazine, 
whick  made  a  space  wide  enough  to  admit  ten  men  to  stand  in  one  rank. 
There  marched  up  a  platoon  of  ten  men  just  by  where  I  stood,  and  at  once 
discharged   their  guns   into   the   Magazine   among  our  killed   and  wounded, 
and   also   among  those   who   had    escaped   uninjured,   and   as   soon   as   these 
had  fired,  another  platoon  was  ready,  and  immediately  took  their  place  when 
they  fell  back.     At  this  moment  Bloomfield  came  swiftly  around  the  corner 
of  the  building,  and  raisins;  his  sword  with  exceeding  quickness,  exclaimed, 
"stop  firing!  or  you  will  send  us  all  to  Hell  together!"     I  was  very  near  him 
w|ien  he  spoke.     He  knew  there  must  be  much  powder  deposited  and  scat- 
tered about  the  Magazine,  and  if  they  continued  throwing  in  fire  we  should 
all  be  blown  up.     I  think  it  must,  before  this,  have  been  the  case,  had  not 
the  grounjj  and  everything  been  wet  with  human  blood.     We  trod  in  blood ! 
We  trarwpled  under  feet  the  limbs  of  our  Countrymen,  our  neighbors  and 
dear  kindred.     Our  ears  were  filled  with  the  groans  of  the  dying,  when  the 
more  stunning  sound  of  the  artillery  would  give  place  to  the  death  shrieks. 
After  this  they  ceased  killing  and  went  to  stripping,  not  only  the  dead,  but 
the  wounded  and  those  who  were  not  wounded.     They  then  ordered  us  all 
who  were  able  to  march,  to  the  N.  E.  part  of  the  parade,  and  those  who 
could  walk  to  help  those  who  were  wounded  so  bad  as  not  to  go  of  them- 
selves.     Mr.    Samuel    Edgcomb   Jr.   and   myself   were   ordered   to    carry   out 
Ensign  Charles  Eldridge,  who  was  shot  through  the  knee  joints;  he  was  a 
very  large,  heavy  man,  and  with  our  fasting  and  violent  exercises  of  the  day, 
we  were  but  ill  able  to  do  it.  or  more  than  to  sustain  our  own  weight;  but 
we   had   to   submit.     We  with   all   the   prisoners  were   taken   out   upon   the 
parade,  about  two  rods  from  the  Fort,  and  ordered  to  sit  down  immediately, 
or  they  would  put  their  bayonets  into  us.     The  battle  was  now  ended.     It 
was  about   i   o'clock  in   the  afternoon,   and   since  the  hour  of  eight  in   the 
morning,  what  a  scene  of  carnage,  of  anxiety,  and  of  loss  had  we  experienced ! 
The  enemy  now  began  to  take  care  of  their  dead  and  wounded.     They 
took  off  six  of  the  outer  doors  of  the  barracks,  and  with  four  men  at  each 
door,  thev  brought  in  one  man  at  a  time.    There  were  twenty-four  men  thus 
employed  for  two  hours,  as  fast  as  they  could  walk.     They  deposited  them 
on  the  west  side  of  the  parade,   in  the  Fort,  where  it  was  the  most  com- 
fortable place,  and  screened  from  the  hot  sun  which  was  pouring  down  upon 
us,  aggravating  our  wounds,  and  causing  many  to  faint  and  die  who  might 
have  lived  with  good  care.     By  my  side  lay  two  most  worthy  and  excellent 
officers,  Capt.  Youngs  Ledyard,  and  Capt.  N.  Moore,  in  the  agonies  of  death. 
Their  heads  rested  on  my  thighs,  as  I  sat  or  lay  there.     They  had  their 
reason  well  and  spoke.     They  asked  for  water.     I  could  give  them  none,  as 
I  was  to  be  thrust  through  if  I  got  up.    I  asked  the  enemy,  who  were  passing 
by  us,  to  give  us  some  water  for  my  dying  friends  and  for  myself.     As  the 
well  was  near  they  granted  this  request;  but  even  then  I  feared  they  would 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  69 

put  something  poison  into  it,  that  they  might  get  us  out  of  the  way  the 
sooner;  and  they  had  said,  repeatedly,  that  the  last  of  us  should  die  before 
the  sun  set!  Oh  what  revenge  and  inhumanity  pervaded  their  steeled  hearts! 
They  effected  what  was  threatened  in  the  summons,  sent  by  the  flag  in  the 
morning,  to  Colonel  Ledyard,  "That  those  who  were  not  killed  by  the  musket-, 
should  be  by  the  sword,"  &c.  But  I  must  think  they  became  tired  of  human 
butchery,  and  so  let  us  live.  They  kept  us  on  the  ground,  the  garrison 
charged,  till  about  two  hours  had  been  spent  in  taking  care  of  their  men; 
and  then  came  and  ordered  everj'  man  of  us  that  could  walk,  to  "rise  up." 
Sentries  were  placed  around  with  guns  loaded,  and  bayonets  fixed,  and  orders 
given  that  every  one  who  would  not,  in  a  moment,  obey  commands,  should 
be  shot  dead  or  run  through !  I  had  to  leave  the  two  dying  men  who  were 
resting  on  me,  dropping  their  heads  on  the  cold  and  hard  ground,  giving  them 
one  last  and  pitying  look.  Oh  God,  this  was  hard  work.  They  both  died 
that  night.  We  marched  down  to  the  bank  of  the  river  so  as  to  be  ready 
to  embark  on  board  the  British  vessels.  There  were  about  thirty  of  us  sur- 
rounded by  sentries.  Captain  Bloomfield  then  came  and  took  down  the  names 
of  the  prisoners  who  were  able  to  march  down  with  us.  Where  I  sat,  I  had 
a  fair  view  of  their  movements.  They  were  setting  fire  to  the  buildings  and 
bringing  the  plunder  and  laying  it  down  near  us.  The  sun  was  about  hal-f 
an  hour  high.  I  can  never  forget  the  vi^hole  appearance  of  all  about  me.  New 
London  was  in  flames!  The  inhabitants  deserted  their  habitations  to  save 
life,  which  was  more  highly  prized.  Above  and  around  us  were  our  unburied 
dead,  and  our  d}ing  friends.  None  to  appeal  to  for  sustenance  in  our  ex- 
hausted state  but  a  maddened  enemy — not  allowed  to  move  a  step  or  make 
any  resistance,  but  with  loss  of  life — and  sitting  to  see  the  property  of  our 
neighbors  consumed  by  fire,  or  the  spoils  of  a  triumphing  enemy! 

Reader,  but  little  can  be  described,  while  much  is  felt.  There  were  still 
remaining,  near  the  fort,  a  great  number  of  the  British  who  were  getting 
ready  to  leave.  They  loaded  up  our  large  ammunition  wagon  that  belonged 
to  the  fort  with  the  wounded  men  that  could  not  walk,  and  about  twenty  of 
the  enemy  drew  it  from  the  fort  to  the  brow  of  the  hill  which  leads  down  to 
the  river.  The  declivity  is  very  steep  for  the  distance  of  thirty  rods  to  the 
river.  As  soon  as  the  wagon  began  to  move  down  the  hill,  it  pressed  so  hard 
against  them  that  they  found  they  were  unable  to  hold  it  back,  and  jumped 
away  from  it  as  quickly  as  possible,  leaving  it  to  thrash  along  down  the  hill 
with  great  speed,  till  the  shafts  struck  a  large  apple  tree  stump,  with  a  most 
violent  crash,  hurting  the  poor  dying,  and  wounded  men  in  it,  in  a  most 
inhuman  manner.  Some  of  the  wounded  fell  out  and  fainted  away;  then  a 
part  of  the  company  where  I  sat,  ran  and  brought  the  men  and  the  wagon 
along.  They  by  some  means  got  the  prisoners  who  were  wounded  badly 
into  a  house  nearby  belonging  to  Ensign  Ebenezer  Avery,  who  was  one  of 
the  wounded  in  the  wagon.  Before  the  prisoners  were  brought  to  the  house 
the  soldiers  had  set  fire  to  it,  but  others  put  it  out,  and  made  use  of  it  for 
this  purpose.  Captain  Bloomfield  paroled,  to  be  left  at  home  here,  these 
wounded  prisoners,  and  took  Ebenezer  Ledyard,  Esq.,  as  hostage  for  them, 
to  see  them  forthcoming  when  called  for. 

Now  the  boats  had  come  for  us  who  could  go  on  board  the  fleet.  The 
officer  spoke  with  a  doleful  and  menacing  tone,  "Come,  you  rebels,  go  on 
board."  This  was  a  consummation  of  all  I  had  seen  or  endured  through  the 
day.  This  wounded  mv  feelings  in  a  thrilling  manner.  After  all  my  suffer- 
ings and  toil,  to  add  the  pang  of  leaving  my  native  land,  my  wife,  my  good 
neighbors,  and  probably  to  suffer  still  more  with  cold  and  hunger,  for  already 
I  had  learned  that  I  was  with  a  cruel  enemy.     But  I  was  in  the  hands  of  a 


70  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

higher  power — over  which  no  human  being  could  hold  superior  control—: 
and  by  God's  preservation  I  am  still  alive,  through  all  the  hardships  and 
dangers  of  the  war,  while  almost  every  one  about  me,  who  shared  the  same, 
has  met  either  a  natural  or  an  unnatural  death.  When  we,  the  prisoners,  went 
down  to  the  shore  to  the  boats,  they  would  not  bring  them  near,  but  kept 
them  off  where  the  water  was  knee  deep  to  us,  obliging  us,  weak  and  worn 
as  we  were,  to  wade  to  them.  We  were  marched  down  in  two  ranks,  one 
on  each  side  of  the  boat.  The  officer  spoke  very  harshly  to  us,  to  "get  aboard 
immediately."  They  rowed  us  down  to  an  armed  sloop,  commanded  bv  one 
Captain  Thomas,  as  they  called  him,  a  refugee  tory,  and  he  lay  with  his 
vessel  within  the  fleet.  As  soon  as  we  were  on  board,  they  hurried  us  down 
into  the  hold  of  the  sloop,  where  were  their  fires  for  cooking,  and  besides 
being  very  hot,  it  was  filled  with  smoke.  The  hatch-way  was  closed  tight, 
so  that  we  were  near  suffocating  for  want  of  air  to  breathe.  We  begged  them 
to  spare  our  lives,  so  they  gave  us  some  relief,  by  opening  the  hatch-way  and 
permitting  us  to  come  up  on  deck,  by  two  or  three  at  a  time,  but  not  without 
sentries  watching  us  with  gun  and  bayonet.  W'e  were  now  extremely 
exhausted  and  faint  for  want  of  food ;  when  after  being  on  board  twenty-four 
hours,  they  gave  us  a  mess  of  hogs  brains ;  the  hogs  which  they  took  on 
Groton  banks  when  they  plundered  there. 

After  being  on  board  Thomas's  sloop  nearly  three  days,  with  nothing 
to  eat  or  drink  that  we  could  swallow,  we  began  to  feel  as  if  a  struggle  must 
be  made,  in  some  way,  to  prolong  our  existence,  which,  after  all  our  escapes 
seemed  still  to  be  depending.  In  such  a  time,  we  can  know,  for  a  reality,  how 
strong  is  the  love  of  life.  In  the  room  where  we  were  confined  were  a  great 
many  weapons  of  war,  and  some  of  the  prisoners  whispered  that  we  might 
make  a  prize  of  the  sloop.  This  in  some  way  was  overheard,  and  got  to  the 
officer's  ears,  and  now  we  were  immediately  put  in  a  stronger  place  in  the 
hold  of  the  vessel ;  and  they  appeared  so  enraged  that  I  was  almost  sure  we 
should  share  a  decisive  fate,  or  suffer  severely.  Soon  they  commenced  calling 
us,  one  by  one,  on  deck.  As  I  went  up  they  seized  me,  tied  my  hands  behind 
me  with  a  strong  rope-yarn,  and  drew  it  so  tight  that  my  shoulder-bones 
cracked  and  almost  touched  each  other.  Then  a  boat  came  from  a  fourteen- 
gun  brig,  commanded  by  one  Steele.  Into  this  boat  I  was  ordered  to  get, 
without  the  use  of  my  hands,  over  the  sloop's  bulwarks,  which  were  all  of 
three  feet  high,  and  then  from  these  I  had  to  fall,  or  throw  myself  into  the 
boat.  My  distress  of  body  and  agitated  feelings  I  cannot  describe ;  and  no 
relief  could  be  anticipated,  but  only  forebodings  of  a  more  severe  fate.  A 
prisoner  with  an  enemy,  an  enraged  and  revengeful  enemy,  is  a  place  where 
I  pray  my  reader  may  never  come.  They  made  us  all  lie  down  under  the 
seats  on  which  the  man  sat  to  row,  and  so  we  were  conveyed  to  the  brig; 
going  on  board,  we  were  ordered  to  stand  in  one  rank  by  the  gunwale,  and 
in  front  of  us  was  placed  a  spar,  within  about  a  foot  of  each  man.  Here  we 
stood,  with  a  sentry  to  each  of  us.  having  orders  to  shoot  or  bayonet  us  if 
we  attempted  to  stir  out  of  our  place.  All  this  time  we  had  nothing  to  eat 
or  drink,  and  it  rained  and  was  very  cold.  We  were  detained  in  this  position 
about  two  hours,  when  we  had  liberty  to  go  about  the  main  deck.  Night 
approached,  and  we  had  no  supper,  nor  anything  to  lie  upon  but  the  wet  deck. 
We  were  on  board  this  brig  about  four  days,  and  then  were  removed  on  board 
a  ship  commanded  by  Capt.  Scott,  who  was  very  kind  to  the  prisoners.  He 
took  me  on  to  the  quarter  deck  with  him,  and  appeared  to  have  the  heart  of 
a  man.  I  should  think  he  was  about  sixty  vears  of  age.  I  remained  with 
him  until  I  was  exchanged.  Capt.  Nathaniel  Shaw  came  down  to  N.  York 
with  the  American  flag,  after  me  and  four  others,  who  were  prisoners  with 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  71 

me,  and  belonged  to  Fort  Griswold,  and  who  were  brave,  and  fine  young  men. 
Gen.  Mifflin  went  with  the  British  flag  to  meet  this  American  flag.  I  sailed 
with  him  about  twenty  miles.  He  asked  me  many  questions,  all  of  which  I 
took  caution  how  I  answered,  and  gave  him  no  information.  I  told  him  I  was 
very  sorry  that  he  should  come  to  destroy  so  many,  many  brave  men,  burn 
their  property,  distress  so  many  families,  and  make  such  desolation.  I  did 
not  think  they  could  be  said  to  be  honorable  in  so  doing.  He  said  "we  might 
thank  our  own  countrymen  for  it."  I  told  him  I  had  no  thanks  for  him.  I 
then  asked  the  Gen.  if  I  might  ask  him  a  few  questions.  "As  many  as  you 
please."  I  asked  him  how  many  of  the  army  who  made  the  attack  upon  New 
London  and  Groton  were  missing?  As  you,  sir,  are  the  commissary  of  the 
British  army,  I  suppose  you  can  tell.  He  replied  "that  by  the  returns,  there 
were  two  hundred  and  twenty  odd  missing,  but  what  had  become  of  them  he 
knew  not."  We  advanced,  and  the  flags  met  and  I  was  exchanged  and  per- 
mitted to  return  home.  Here  I  close  my  narrative ;  for,  as  I  was  requested 
I  have  given  a  particular  and  unexaggerated  account  of  that  which  I  saw 
with  mine  own  eyes. 

The  author  of  the  following  narrative  of  events,  Stephen  Hempstead, 
entered  the  service  of  his  country  in  1775,  and  arrived  in  Boston  on  the  day 
of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  He  was  at  Dorchester  Point;  was  on  Long 
Island  at  the  time  of  the  retreat  of  the  American  army ;  and  was  also  a  volun- 
teer in  the  first  ships  that  were  to  destroy  the  "Asia,"  84-gun  ship,  and  a 
frigate  lying  above  Fort  Washington.  In  this  attempt  they  were  unsuccessful, 
although  grappled  to  the  enemy's  vessel  twenty  minutes.  For  the  bravery 
displayed  by  them  they  received  the  particular  thanks  of  the  commanding 
officer  in  person  and  in  general  orders,  and  fort}'  dollars  were  ordered  to  be 
paid  to  each  person  engaged.  He  was  afterwards  wounded  by  a  grapeshot 
while  defending  the  lines  at  Harlem  Heights,  which  broke  two  of  his  ribs.  He 
continued  in  the  service,  and  was  again  wounded  on  the  6th  of  September, 
1781.  He  formerly  resided  in  New  London.  He  enjoyed  the  reception  of 
General  LaFayette  in  that  place  during  his  last  visit  to  this  country,  and 
within  a  few  years  wrote  this  account  in  full,  for  publication : 

On  the  morning  of  the  6th  of  September,  1781,  twenty-four  sail  of  the 
enemy's  shipping  appeared  to  the  westward  of  New  London  harbor.  The 
enemy  landed  in  two  divisions,  of  about  800  men  each,  commanded  by  that 
infamous  traitor  to  his  country,  Benedict  Arnold,  who  headed  the  division  that 
landed  on  the  New  London  side,  near  Brown's  farms;  the  other  division, 
commanded  by  Col.  Ayres,  landed  on  Groton  Point,  nearly  opposite.  I  was 
first  sergeant  of  Capt.  Adam  Shapley's  company  of  State  troops,  and  was 
stationed  with  him  at  the  time,  with  about  23  men,  at  Fort  Trumbull,  on  the 
New  London  side.  This  was  a  mere  breastwork  or  water  battery,  open 
from  behind,  and  the  enemy  coming  on  us  from  that  quarter,  we  spiked  our 
cannon,  and  commenced  a  retreat  across  the  river  to  Fort  Griswold  in  three 
boats.  The  enemy  was  so  near  that  they  overshot  us  with  their  muskets,  and 
succeeded  in  capturing  one  boat  with  six  men  commanded  by  Josiah  Smith, 
a  private.  They  afterwards  proceeded  to  New  London  and  burnt  the  town. 
We  were  received  by  the  garrison  with  enthusiasm,  being  considered  experi- 
enced artillerists,  whom  they  much  needed;  and  we  were  immediately  assigned 
to  our  stations.  The  Fort  was  an  oblong  square,  with  bastions  at  opposite 
angles,  its  longest  side  fronting  the  river  in  a  N.  W.  and  S.  E.  direction.    Its 


72  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

walls  were  of  stone,  and  were  lo  or  12  feet  high  on  the  lower  side  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  ditch.  On  the  wall  were  pickets,  projecting  over  12  feet;  above 
this  was  a  parapet  with  embrasures,  and  within  a  platform  for  the  cannon, 
and  a  step  to  mount  upon,  to  shoot  over  the  parapet  with  small  arms.  In  the 
S.  W.  bastion  was  a  flag-staft,  and  in  the  side  near  the  opposite  angle  was 
the  gate,  in  front  of  which  was  a  triangular  breastwork  to  protect  the  gate ; 
and  to  the  right  of  this  was  a  redoubt  with  a  three-pounder  in  it,  which  was 
about  120  yards  from  the  gate.  Between  the  Fort  and  the  river  was  another 
battery,  with  a  covered  way.  but  which  could  not  be  used  in  this  attack,  as 
the  enemy  appeared  in  a  different  quarter.  The  garrison  with  the  volunteers 
consisted  of  about  160  men.  Soon  after  our  arrival,  the  enemy  appeared  in 
force  in  some  woods  about  half  a  mile  S.  E.  of  the  Fort,  from  whence  they 
sent  a  flag  of  truce,  which  was  met  by  Capt.  Shapley.  demanding  an  uncon- 
ditional surrender,  threatening  at  the  same  time  to  storm  the  Fort  instamtly 
if  the  terms  were  not  accepted.  A  council  of  war  was  held,  and  it  was  the 
unanimous  voice  that  the  garrison  were  unable  to  defend  themselves  against 
so  superior  a  force.  But  a  militia  Colonel  who  was  then  in  the  Fort  and 
had  a  body  of  men  in  the  immediate  vicinity  said  he  would  reinforce  them 
with  2  or  300  men  in  fifteen  minutes,  if  they  would  hold  out ;  Col.  Lcdyard 
ag^reed  to  send  back  a  defiance,  upon  the  most  solemn  assurance  of  immediate 

succor.     For  this  purpose.  Col. started,  his  men  being  then  in   sight; 

but  he  was  no  more  seen,  nor  did  he  even  attempt  a  diversion  in  our  favor. 
When  the  answer  to  their  demand  had  been  returned  by  Capt.  Shapley,  the 
enemy  were  soon  in  motion,  and  marched  with  great  rapidity,  in  a  solid 
column,  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the  Fort,  where,  dividing  the  column, 
they  rushed  furiously  and  simultaneously  to  the  assault  of  the  S.  W.  bastion 
and  the  opposite  sides.  They  were,  however,  repulsed  with  great  slaughter, 
their  commander  mortally  wounded,  and  Major  ^Montgomery,  next  in  rank, 
killed,  having  been  thrust  through  the  body  whilst  in  the  act  of  scaling  the 
walls  at  the  S.  W.  bastion,  by  Capt.  Shapley.  The  command  then  devolved 
on  Col.  Beckwith.  a  refugee  from  New  Jersey,  who  commanded  a  corps  of 
that  description.  The  enemy  rallied  and  returned  the  attack  with  great  vigor, 
but  were  received  and  repulsed  with  equal  firmness.  During  the  attack  a 
shot  cut  the  halyards  of  the  flag,  and  it  fell  to  the  ground,  but  was  instantly 
remounted  on  a  pike  pole.  This  accident  proved  fatal  to  us.  as  the  enemy 
supposed  it  had  been  struck  by  its  defenders,  rallied  again,  and  rushing  with 
redoubled  impetuosity,  carried  the  S.  W.  bastion  by  storm.  Until  this  mo- 
ment, our  loss  was  trifling  in  number,  being  6  or  7  killed,  and  18  or  20 
wounded.  Never  was  a  post  more  bravely  defended,  nor  a  garrison  more 
barbarously  butchered.  We  fought  with  all  kinds  of  weapons,  and  at  all 
places  with  a  courage  that  deserved  a  better  fate.  Many  of  the  enemy  were 
killed  under  the  walls  by  throwing  simple  shot  over  them,  and  never  would 
we  have  relinquished  our  arms,  had  we  had  the  least  idea  that  such  a  catas- 
trophe would  have  followed.  To  describe  this  scene  I  must  be  permitted  to 
go  back  a  little  in  my  narrative.  I  commanded  an  i8-pounder  on  the  south 
side  of  the  gate,  and  while  in  the  act  of  sighting  my  gun,  a  ball  passed  through 
the  embrasure,  struck  me  a  little  above  the  right  ear,  grazing  the  skull,  and 
cutting  off  the  veins,  which  bled  profusely.  A  handkerchief  was  tied  around 
it  and  I  continued  at  my  duty.  Discovering  some  little  time  after  that  a 
British  soldier  had  broken  a  picket  at  the  bastion  on  my  left,  and  was  forcing 
himself  through  the  hole,  whilst  the  men  stationed  there  were  gazing  at  the 
battle  which  raged  opposite  to  them,  cried,  "my  brave  fellows,"  the  enemy 
are  breaking  in  behind  you,"  and  raised  my  pike  to  despatch  the  intruder, 
when  a  ball  struck  my  left  arm  at  the  elbow,  and  my  pike  fell  to  the  ground. 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  73 

Nevertheless  I  grasped  it  with  my  right  hand,  and  with  the  men,  who  turned 
and  fought  manfully,  cleared  the  breach.  The  enemy,  however,  soon  after 
forced  the  S.  W.  bastion,  where  Capt.  Shapely,  Capt.  Peter  Richards,  Lieut. 
Richard  Chapman  and  several  other  men  of  distinction,  and  volunteers,  had 
fought  with  unconquerable  courage,  and  were  all  either  killed  or  mortally 
wounded,  and  which  had  sustained  the  brunt  of  every  attack.  Capt.  P.  Rich- 
ards, Lieut.  Chapman  and  several  others  were  killed  in  the  bastion ;  Capt. 
Shapely  and  others  wounded.     He  died  of  his  wounds  in  January  following. 

Col.  Ledyard,  seeing  the  enemy  within  the  fort,  gave  orders  to  cease 
firing,  and  to  throw  down  our  arms  as  the  Fort  had  surrendered.  We  did 
so,  but  they  continued  firing  upon  us,  crossed  the  fort  and  opened  the  gate, 
when  they  marched  in,  firing  in  platoons  upon  those  who  were  retreating  to 
the  magazine  and  barrack  rooms  for  safety.  At  this  moment  the  renegade 
Colonel  B.  commanding,  cried  out,  who  commands  this  garrison?  Col.  Led- 
yard, who  was  standing  near  me,  answered,  "I  did  sir,  but  you  do  now,"  at 
the  same  time  stepping  forward,  handed  him  his  sword  with  the  point  towards 
himself.  At  this  instant  I  perceived  a  soldier  in  the  act  of  bayoneting  me 
from  behind.  I  turned  suddenly  round  and  grasped  his  bayonet,  endeavoring 
to  unship  it,  and  knock  off  the  thrust — but  in  vain.  Having  but  one  hand, 
he  succeeded  in  forcing  it  into  my  right  hip,  above  the  joint,  and  just  below 
the  abdomen,  and  crushed  me  to  the  ground.  The  first  person  I  saw  after- 
wards was  my  brave  commander,  a  corpse  by  mj'  side,  having  been  run 
through  the  body  with  his  own  sword  by  the  savage  renegade.  Never  was 
a  scene  of  more  brutal  wanton  carnage  witnessed  than  now  took  place.  The 
enemy  were  still  firing  upon  us  in  platoons,  and  in  the  barrack  rooms,  which 
were  continued  for  some  minutes,  when  they  discovered  they  were  in  danger 
of  being  blown  up,  by  communicating  fire  to  the  powder  scattered  at  the 
mouth  of  the  magazine,  while  delivering  our  cartridges ;  nor  did  it  then 
cease  in  the  rooms  for  some  minutes  longer.  All  this  time  the  bayonet  was 
"freely  used,"  even  on  those  who  were  helplessly  wounded  and  in  the  agonies 
of  death.  I  recollect  Capt.  Wm.  Seymour,  a  volunteer  from  Hartford,  had 
13  bayonet  wounds,  although  his  knee  had  previously  been  shattered  by  e 
ball,  so  much  so  that  it  was  obliged  to  be  amputated  the  next  day.  But  I 
need  not  mention  particular  cases.  I  have  already  said  that  we  had  6  killed 
and  18  wounded  previous  to  their  storming  our  lines;  85  were  killed  in  all,  35 
mortally  and  dangerously  wounded,  and  40  taken  prisoners  to  New  York, 
most  of  them  slightly  hurt. 

After  the  massacre,  they  plundered  us  of  everything  we  had,  and  left 
us  literally  naked.  When  they  commenced  gathering  us  up  together  with 
their  own  wounded,  they  put  theirs  under  the  shade  of  the  platform,  and 
exposed  us  to  the  sun,  in  front  of  the  barracks,  where  we  remained  over  an 
hour.  Those  that  could  stand  were  then  paraded,  and  ordered  to  the  landing, 
while  those  that  could  not  (of  which  number  I  was  one)  were  put  in  one 
of  our  ammunition  wagons,  and  taken  to  the  brow  of  the  hill  (which  was  very 
steep,  and  at  least  100  rods  in  descent),  from  whence  it  was  permitted  to  run 
down  by  itself,  but  was  arrested  in  its  course,  near  the  river,  by  an  apple  tree. 
The  pain  and  anguish  we  all  endured  in  this  rapid  descent,  as  the  wagon 
jumped  and  jostled  over  rocks  and  holes  is  inconceivable;  and  the  jar  in  its 
arrest  was  like  bursting  the  cords  of  life  asunder,  and  caused  us  to  shriek 
with  almost  supernatural  force.  Our  cries  were  distinctly  heard  and  noticed 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  (which  is  a  mile  wide),  amidst  all  the  con- 
fusion which  raged  in  burning  and  sacking  the  town.  We  remained  in  the 
wagon  more  than  an  hour,  before  our  humane  conquerers  hunted  us  up,  when 
we  were  again  paraded  and  laid  on  the  beach,  preparatory  to  embarkation. 


74  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

But  by  the  interposition  of  Ebenezer  Ledyard  (brother  to  Col.  L.),  who 
humanely  represent  our  deplorable  situation,  and  the  impossibility  of  our 
beinfj  able  to  reach  New  York,  35  of  us  were  paroled  in  the  usual  form,  he'mf; 
near  the  house  of  Ebenezer  Avery,  who  was  also  one  of  our  number,  we  were 
taken  into  it.  Here  we  had  not  long  remained  before  a  marauding  party  set 
fire  to  every  room,  evidently  intending  to  burn  us  up  with  the  house.  The 
party  soon  left  it,  when  it  was  with  difficulty  extinguished  and  we  were  thus 
saved  from  the  flames.  Ebenezer  Ledyard  again  interfered  and  obtained  a 
sentinel  to  remain  and  guard  us  until  the  last  of  the  enemy  embarked,  about 
II  o'clock  at  night.  None  of  our  own  people  came  to  us  till  near  daylight  the 
next  morning,  not  knowing  previous  to  that  time  that  the  enemy  had  departed. 

Such  a  night  of  distress  and  anguish  was  scarcely  ever  passed  by  mortal. 
Thirty-five  of  us  were  lying  on  the  bare  floor — stiff,  mangled,  and  wounded 
in  every  manner,  exhausted  with  pain,  fatigue  and  loss  of  blood,  without 
clothes  or  anything  to  cover  us,  trembling  with  cold  and  spasms  of  extreme 
anguish,  without  fire  or  light,  parched  with  excruciating  thirst,  not  a  wound 
dressed  nor  a  soul  to  administer  to  one  of  our  wants,  nor  an  assisting  hand 
to  turn  us  during  these  long  tedious  hours  of  the  night ;  nothing  but  groans 
and  unavailing  sighs  were  heard,  and  two  of  our  number  did  not  live  to  see 
the  light  of  the  morning,  which  brought  with  it  some  ministering  angels  to 
our  relief.  The  first  was  in  the  person  of  Miss  Fanny  Ledyard,  of  Southold, 
L.  L,  then  on  a  visit  to  her  uncle,  our  murdered  commander,  who  held  to  my 
lips  a  cup  of  v^^arm  chocolate,  and  soon  after  returned  with  wine  and  other 
refreshments,  which  revived  us  a  little.  For  these  kindnesses  she  has  never 
ceased  to  receive  my  most  grateful  thanks  and  fervent  prayers  for  her  felicity. 

The  cruelty  of  our  enemy  cannot  be  conceived  ;  and  our  renegade  country- 
men surpassed  in  this  respect,  if  possible,  our  British  foes.  We  were  at  least 
an  hour  after  the  battle,  within  a  few  steps  of  a  pump  in  the  garrison,  well 
supplied  with  water,  and,  although  we  were  suffering  with  thirst,  they  would 
not  permit  us  to  take  one  drop  of  it.  nor  give  us  any  themselves.  Some  of 
our  number,  who  were  not  disabled  from  going  to  the  pump,  were  repulsed 
with  the  bayonet,  and  not  one  drop  did  I  taste  after  the  action  commenced, 
although  begging  for  it  after  I  was  wounded,  of  all  who  came  near  me,  until 
relieved  by  Miss  Ledvard.  We  were  a  horrible  sight  at  this  time.  Our  own 
friends  did  not  know  us — even  my  own  wife  came  in  the  room  in  search  of 
me,  and  did  not  recognize  me,  and  as  I  did  not  see  her,  she  left  the  room  to 
seek  for  me  among  the  slain,  who  had  been  collected  under  a  large  elm  tree 
near  the  house.  It  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  many  of  them  could 
be  identified,  and  we  were  frequently  called  upon  to  assist  their  friends  in 
distinguishing  them,  by  remembering  particular  wounds.  iS:c.  Being  myself 
taken  out  by  two  men  for  this  purpose,  I  met  my  wife  and  brother,  who,  after 
my  wounds  were  dressed  by  Dr.  Downer,  from  Preston,  took  me — not  to  my 
own  home,  for  that  was  in  ashes,  as  also  every  article  of  my  propertv,  fur- 
niture and  clothing — but  to  my  brother's  where  I  lay  eleven  months  as  help- 
less as  a  child,  and  to  this  day  I  feel  the  effects  of  it  severely. 

Such  was  the  battle  of  Groton  Heights;  and  such,  as  far  as  my  imperfect 
manner  and  language  can  describe,  a  part  of  the  sufferings  which  we  endured. 
Never,  for  a  moment,  have  I  regretted  the  share  I  had  in  it ;  I  would  for  an 
equal  degree  of  honor,  and  the  prosperity  which  has  resulted  to  my  country 
from  the  Revolution,  be  willing,  if  possible,  to  suffer  it  again. 

Stephen  Hempste.\d. 
The  following  note  in  Allen's  history  of  the  "Battle  of  Groton  Heights" 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  75 

shows  that  even  today  there  is  considerable  doubt  as  to  just  how  Colonel 
Ledyard  was  killed.  Mr.  Alh  n's  subscript  to  the  note  of  Harris  indicate? 
again  the  lack  of  conclusive  evidence  on  this  point: 

Since  this  transaction  there  has  ever  existed  in  the  public  mind  great 
uncertainty  as  to  who  was  the  murderer  of  Colonel  Ledyard,  the  odium  being 
divided  between  Major  Bromfield,  who  succeeded  Major  Montgomery  in 
command  of  the  British  troops  on  that  occasion,  and  Captain  Beckwith,  of 
the  54th  regiment.  No  person  who  actually  witnessed  the  deed  survived  the 
battle,*  or  if  any  did  they  left  no  account  of  it  behind  them ;  and  therefore 
the  version  of  the  manner  of  Ledyard's  death  commonly  received  as  the  cor- 
rect one  is  but  merely  a  conjecture,  at  the  most.  By  this,  the  deed  is  ascribed 
to  the  officer  who  received  Ledyard's  surrender  of  the  fort,  supposed  by  the 
greater  number  to  have  been  Major  Bromfield ;  others  at  the  time,  and  for 
a  long  time  subsequent,  laid  the  infamous  transaction  to  the  charge  of  Captain 
Beckwith,  supposing  him  to  have  been  the  officer  who  met  Ledyard  and 
demanded  the  surrender. 

Let  us  consider  the  matter  a  little,  and  see  if  we  be  able  to  reconcile  the 
known  facts  and  strong  probabilities  in  the  case,  with  this  generally  received 
opinion.  Upon  the  entry  of  the  British  officer  to  the  fort,  and  at  his  demand 
of  who  commanded  it.  Colonel  Ledyard  advanced  to  answer,  "I  did,"  etc.,  at 
the  same  time  tendering  him  the  hilt  of  his  sword  in  token  of  submission. 
It  is  obvious  that  in  this  action  Colonel  Ledyard  must  have  presented  the 
front  of  his  person  to  that  officer.  Now,  had  the  latter,  in  taking  the  sur- 
rendered sword,  instantly  (as  all  accounts  charge  him  with  having  done) 
plunged  it  into  him,  is  it  not  also  evident  that  it  must  have  entered  in  front 
and  passed  out  of  the  back  of  his  person?  The  vest  and  shirt  worn  that  day 
by  Colonel  Ledyard,  preserved  in  the  Wadsworth  Athenaeum  at  Hartford, 
upon  examination  reveal  two  rough,  jagged  openings,  one  on  either  side,  a 
little  before  and  in  a  line  with  the  lower  edge  of  the  arm-holes  of  the  vest. 
The  larger  of  these  apertures  is  upon  the  left  side;  the  difference  in  size 
between  it  and  that  on  the  right  corresponds  with  the  taper  of  a  sabre  blade 
from  hilt  to  point,  showing  conclusively  that  the  weapon  entered  from  the 
left  and  passed  out  at  the  right,  and  that  the  person  by  whom  the  wound  was 
inflicted  must  have  stood  upon  the  left  side  of  the  wearer  when  the  plunge 
was  made.  These  holes  are  marked :  that  on  the  left  as  "where  the  sword 
entered,"  and  that  on  the  right  as  "where  the  sword  came  out" — so  marked, 
doubtless,  by  the  person  who  presented  these  memorials  to  the  society,  a  near 
relative  of  Colonel  Ledyard,  and  who  considered  them  as  the  marks  of  the 
fatal  wound.  These  are  the  only  marks  visible  upon  the  garment.  It  is  a 
reasonable  supposition  that  when  the  British  officer  entered  and  thundered 
his  demand  he  carried  his  drawn  sword  in  his  right  hand;  for  we  can  scarcely 
imagine  an  officer  rushing  unarmed  into  a  place  of  such  danger  and  demand- 
ing a  surrender.    Now,  in  case  he  did  so  carry  his  sword,  he  must  necessarily 


*  Mr.  Harris  is  in  error  here,  I  believe,  as  I  myself  have  heard  this  action  described 
by  three  people  whose  fathers  saw  the  murder,  and  often  told  of  it  to  their  children 
(see  notes  on  Andrew  Gallup  and  Caleb  Avery).  This  being  the  case,  most  of  the 
ground  for  Mr.  Harris's  argument  is  taken  away.  The  argument,  though  ingenious,  is 
not  conclusive,  since  no  one  can  by  reasoning  be  certain  what  positions  would  be 
taken  in  moments  of  such  excitement.  The  most  natural  positions  are  those  which 
agree  with  the  popularly  received  account,  as  men  of  military  experience  and  educa- 
tion. I  think,  will  agree. — A. 


76  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

either  have  sheathed,  dropped,  or  changed  it  to  his  left  hand,  in  order  to 
receive  Ledyard's  with  the  right;  and  this  hardly  seems  possible.  We  must 
therefore  suppose  that  he  received  it  in  his  left  hand ;  and  if  so,  does  it  not 
appear  as  most  unreasonable  that,  having  a  sword  in  either  hand,  he  would 
have  used  that  in  his  left  with  which  to  make  the  thrust?  Yet  he  must  have 
done  so  if  it  was  by  his  own  sword  that  Ledyard  met  his  death.  Neither  does 
it  appear  possible  that  in  the  heat  and  excitement  of  the  engagement,  coolly 
calculating  the  chances,  he  would  have  passed  around  to  the  left  of  his  victim 
for  the  purpose  of  making  the  wound  more  surely  fatal — the  only  reason  for 
which  we  can  suppose  it  to  have  been  done. 

We  have  seen  from  the  position  occupied  by  the  parties  that  the  wound, 
if  inflicted  instantly  on  the  surrender  of  the  sword,  must  have  been  given 
in  front;  the  marks  in  the  vest  conclusively  prove  it  to  have  been  given  in  the 
left  side.  We  have  seen  the  awkward  position  of  the  officer  with  his  own 
sword  in  his  right  and  Ledyard's  in  his  left  hand — a  situation  almost  pre- 
cluding the  idea  of  his  making  the  stab  with  the  latter.  We  have  also  seen 
that  no  person  who  witnessed  it  left  any  testimony  regarding  the  affair,  and 
that  all  the  commonly  received  version  of  it  is  based  upon  is  really  but 
the  surmises  of  a  people  wrought  almost  to  desperation  by  their  losses  and 
wrongs,  who  in  the  first  moments  of  exasperation  would  naturally  attribute 
an  act  of  such  enormity  to  the  commander  as  the  representative  of  the  enemy. 
Now.  after  considering  all  these  facts  and  probabilities,  is  it  not  a  more 
rational  conclusion  that  the  wound  was  given  by  a  by-standing  officer — a 
subaltern  or  aid,  perhaps — than  that  it  was  inflicted  by  the  officer  to  whom 
Ledyard  offered  his  sword?  It  certainly  so  appears  to  us.  But  in  case  that, 
despite  all  these  reasons  for  believing  that  officer  innocent  of  the  crime,  he 
was  really  guiltv  of  the  two  to  whom  it  has  been  charged,  against  but  one 
is  there  any  evidence  to  sustain  the  charge,  and  this  is  purely  circumstantial. 
Captain  Beckwith  acted  as  aid  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Ayres  on  the  dav  of  the 
battle,  and  was  the  officer  sent  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  He,  with 
Lord  Dalrymple,  was  sent  by  Arnold  as  bearer  of  despatches  to  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  and  in  all  probability  furnished  the  account  of  the  battle  for  Riving- 
ton's  Gazette,  which  appeared  in  that  paper  before  the  remainder  of  the 
expedition  had  reached  New  York.  In  this  account,  in  which  the  details  of 
the  conference  regarding  the  surrender  are  given  with  a  minuteness  with 
which  only  an  eye-witness  could  give  them,  personal  malice  toward  Colonel 
Ledyard  is  a  salient  feature,  which  the  most  unobservant  reader  cannot  fail 
to  notice.  The  writer  appears  to  have  considered  the  flag  and  the  officers 
bearing  it  insulted  in  the  conference;  and  in  his  reference  to  the  garrison, 
and  to  Colonel  Ledyard  in  particular,  he  expresses  himself  in  the  most  con- 
temptuous and  bitter  terms. 

If  he  was  the  officer  to  whom  the  surrender  was  made,  it  is  possible  that 
on  beholding  the  man  who  he  fancied  had  insulted  him  he  allowed  his  rage 
to  supplant  his  manhood,  and,  forgetting  his  military  honor,  plunged  his 
sword  into  his  vanquished  enemy.  From  Miss  Caulkins'  "History  of  New 
London"  we  learn  that  he  afterward  passed  through  New  York  on  his  way 
to  Barbadoes.  While  there  he  was  charged  by  the  newspapers  of  that  city 
with  the  murder,  which  he  indignantly  denied.  A  correspondence  was  opened 
between  him  and  a  relative  of  Colonel  Ledyard  in  reference  to  the  question, 
when  he  produced  documents  which  exculpated  him.  In  view  of  this,  how- 
ever, as  between  him  and  Major  Bromfield.  circumstantial  evidence  is  strongly 
in  favor  of  the  latter,  who  doubtless  could  have  furnished  as  full  documentary 
proof  of  his  innocence,  had  he  been  called  upon  for  it. — H. 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST 

The  population  of  New  London  county  had  grown  bv  1800  to  about 
40,000,  Stonington  at  that  time  being  its  largest  town.  Commerce  was  carried 
on  extensively  with  the  West  Indies  and  with  South  America  and  Europe. 
The  war  between  England  and  France  was  at  that  time  a  source  of  much 
profit  to  New  England,  but  with  the  Embargo  Act  of  1807  the  shipping 
interests  of  the  county  were  hard  hit.  It  is  small  wonder  that  the  Federalists 
opposed  Jeflferson's  policy. 

One  wonders,  of  course,  why  New  England,  in  spite  of  impressment  of 
our  seamen  by  the  Mother  Country  and  her  renunciation  of  a  well  settled 
shipping  rule,  was  so  luke-warm  in  its  animosity  against  her  and  so  hostile 
to  France.  The  reasons  are  three:  In  the  first  place,  the  French  privateers 
of  the  West  Indies  and  their  depredations  on  New  England  commerce ;  sec- 
ondly, Jefferson  was  at  the  same  time  a  French  adherent,  and  author  of  a 
commercial  policy  the  stupidest  conceivable  from  our  standpoint.  He  had 
called  a  halt  in  navy  making  and  had  forced  on  the  country  the  embargo  and 
non-intercourse  acts.  But  the  third  reason  was  by  far  the  most  important, 
viz.:  The  feeling  in  every  real  New  England  man  that  Great  Britain  was 
fighting  the  battle  of  Christendom  against  Bonaparte.  "Suppose  England 
has  changed  her  maritime  rules."  our  fathers  said,  "let  us  in  at  the  game,  no 
matter  what  rule  she  makes.  Give  us  seaway,  and  give  us  a  port  ahead — we 
will  find  our  way  in.  Never  mind  the  cruising  frigates  or  the  blockade,  actual 
or  on  paper.    If  we  are  caught,  ours  the  loss." 

The  thought  that,  after  all,  Old  England  might  not  win  hung  like  a  cloud 
over  every  New  England  hamlet.  Open  the  limp  sheets  of  those  old  Con- 
necticut journals.  Even  in  our  actual  fighting  days  from  1812  to  1815,  clip- 
pings from  the  English  papers  that  slipped  in  via  Halifax  were  what  people 
wanted  most  to  read^not  news  of  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane.  Wellington 
and  Napoleon  were  the  real  figures  on  the  world's  stage.  And  our  grand- 
fathers judged  rightly. 

Such  were  the  feelings  that  gave  birth  to  the  Hartford  Convention.  Have 
we  in  Connecticut  anything  to  apologize  for  in  that  gathering?  If  so,  it 
doesn't  appear  in  its  journal — and  Theodore  Dwight  was  an  honest  man. 
Do  we  wish  it  had  never  met?  If  that  page  were  taken  from  New  England 
history,  we  should  always  miss  something — a  rare  sample  of  her  sober  courage, 
her  four-square  view  of  things  as  they  are.  If  other  events — the  treaty,  and 
Jackson  at  New  Orleans — had  not  come  near  at  the  time  of  its  adjournment, 
its  name  would  never  have  been  spoken  with  a  sneer  or  written  with  nullifica- 
tion in  the  context. 

But  with  the  end  of  the  war  of  1812  came  the  dying  out  of  the  Federalist 
party  and  a  new  era  for  industrial  New  England.  The  New  England  of 
commercial  prosperity  soon  took  up  manufacturing  on  a  large  scale.  New 
London  and  Stonington  still  had  their  thriving  fleets  of  merchantmen  and 
whalers,  concerning  which  we  quote  from  an  article  by  Miss  Charlotte  M. 
Holloway,  in  the  "Connecticut  Quarterly": 


78  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

The  first  ship  fitted  out  from  New  London  was  the  "Rising  Sun,"  Squire, 
captain,  1784;  but  the  voyage  was  not  a  long  nor  eventful  one,  and  to  the  ship 
"Commerce,"  rather,  which  cleared  from  New  London  February  6,  1794,  is 
due  the  honor  of  having  been  the  pioneer  of  the  New  London  whaling  fishery, 
and  the  first  to  make  for  southern  latitudes,  and  after  a  cruise  of  fifteen  months 
it  returned  July  6,  1798,  with  a  full  cargo  of  oil.  It  would  have  been  inter- 
esting to  know  more  than  the  meagre  record  of  the  name  of  the  captain. 
Ransom,  but  the  "Commerce"  after  another  voyage  was  put  into  the  West 
Indian  trade,  and  was  lost  off  Cape  Henry,  December  25,  1799.  Gen.  William 
Williams,  of  the  Williams  family  noted  for  benefactions  to  the  city,  had  also 
sent  out  the  "Criterion,"  which  was  successful,  but  for  some  reason,  though 
endeavor  was  made  to  form  a  company  in  New  London  to  prosecute  whaling, 
the  published  call  in  "Green's  Gazette"  met  with  insufficient  response,  and 
the  project  languished  till  1805,  when  Dr.  Samuel  H.  P.  Lee  purchased  the 
"Dauphin,"  built  by  Joseph  Barber,  at  Pawkatuck  Bridge,  especially  for  whal- 
ing. Dr.  Lee  organized  a  whaling  company,  but  it  is  not  alone  through 
service  to  her  commerce  that  New  London  is  debtor  to  this  noble  man,  for 
in  the  terrible  yellow  fever  epidemic  of  1798  which  decimated  the  population, 
he  remained  at  his  post  working  day  and  night  to  save  life  and  stimulating 
others  to  heroism  and  endurance.  Soon  three  ships  were  in  commission — the 
"Daphne,"  "Leonidas"  and  "Lydia" — and  their  catches  were  sufficient  to  war- 
rant the  company  in  continuing;  but  there  came  the  deterrents  of  the  Em- 
bargo and  the  War  of  1812.  So  that  the  real  birth  of  the  whale  fishing  in 
New  London  can  be  dated  from  1819.  when  Thomas  W.  Williams  fitted  out 
the  "Mary"  (Captain  Davis),  Daniel  Deshon  and  others  the  "Carrier,"  Doug- 
las, and  the  "Mary  Ann,"  Inglis ;  in  1820,  the  "Pizarro,"  Elias  Coit ;  1821,  the 
brig  "Thames"  and  the  ships  "Commodore  Perry"  and  "Stonington,"  the 
latter  so  large  that  it  was  made  a  stock  enterprise,  divided  into  shares  of  one 
thirty-second  each.  Both  ships  sailed  the  same  year  around  the  Horn,  and 
after  an  absence  of  twenty-eight  months  brought  back,  the  "Carrier"  2,100 
and  the  "Stonington"  1,550  barrels.  By  1827  there  were  six  ships  fitted  out 
by  T.  W.  Williams,  and  N.  and  W.  W.  Billings  had  three — the  "Commodore 
Perrv."  which  was  the  first  copper-bottomed  whaler  sent  from  this  port,  and 
the  "Superior"  and  the  "Phoenix."  The  "Commodore  Perry"  made  seventeen 
voyages  and  the  "Stonington"  thirteen  before  they  were  broken  up  in  1848. 
The  "Neptune,"  which  T.  W.  Williams  bought  in  1824,  was  built  in  1808,  and 
had  returned  from  an  unsuccessful  voyage  when  it  was  purchased  from  its 
New  Bedford  owner  for  $1,650.  After  its  addition  to  the  New  London  fleet 
it  made  more  than  twenty  voyages.  It  was  in  the  "Neptune."  1829,  that  Capt. 
Samuel  Green,  the  oldest  living  whaling  captain  in  New  London,  made  his 
first  voyage.  His  last  was  in  the  "Trident,"  in  1871,  and  so  frightful  was  his 
experience  that  he  determined,  should  he  escape,  never  again  to  risk  his  life 
in  the  fatal  trap  which  had  caught  so  many  good  men  and  ships.  In  Sep- 
tember the  fleet  of  34  vessels  was  gathered  in  a  narrow  strip  from  two  hund- 
red yards  to  half  a  mile  in  width,  from  Point  Belcher  to  two  or  three  miles 
south  of  Wainright  Inlet.  The  whaling  had  been  fairly  good,  and  despite  the 
warnings  of  the  Esquimaux,  who  told  them  the  ice  was  closing  in,  they 
remained  until  the  wind  changed  and  the  ice  floes  were  driven  upon  them ; 
the  vessels  were  crushed,  the  crews  abandoned  them,  glad  to  save  their  lives, 
and  after  untold  hardships,  from  the  29th  of  August  to  the  14th  of  September, 
when  they  abandoned  the  vessels,  the  devoted  masters  and  crews  started  to 
reach  the  "Arctic"  and  another  vessel  which  was  free  of  the  ice. 

From  this  firm  and  New  London  the  first  steam  whaler  was  sent  to  the 
whaling  grounds,  and  the  first  steam  sealer.     In  the  whaler  "Pioneer,"  Capt. 


AN  ERA  OF  UNREST  79 

Ebenezer  Morgan,  better  known  as  "Rattler"  Morgan,  was  made  the  best 
whaling  voyage  on  record;  sailing  June  4,  1864,  for  Hudson's  Bay,  she 
returned  September  18,  1865,  with  1,391  barrels  of  whale  oil,  and  22,650 
pounds  of  whalebone,  a  cargo  worth  $150,000,  while  the  outlay  for  vessel 
and  fitting  was  but  $35,800.  This  was  the  best  whaling  voyage  ever  made. 
The  principle  on  which  whaling  was  conducted  was  co-operative,  the  owners 
furnishing  ship,  outfit,  and  providing  for  the  honoring  of  the  captain's  drafts; 
the  captain  was  quite  often  a  part  or  whole  owner.  Capital  had  two-thirds  of 
the  gain  and  the  other  third  was  divided  proportionately  among  the  officers 
and  men.  There  being  no  wages  settled,  every  incentive  was  furnished  for 
diligence,  and  somtimes  a  bonus  was  offered  to  the  first  man  who  sighted  a 
whale.  There  were  very  many  daring  and  successful  whalers  from  New 
London ;  indeed,  the  solid  comfort  and  foundation  of  many  of  her  homes  came 
from  the  splendid  fortitude  and  perseverance  of  these  heroes  of  the  sea.  There 
were  no  more  brave  and  successful  captains  than  the  three  brothers  Smith- — 
Capt.  Robert  Smith,  who  was  killed  on  his  sixth  voyage,  in  1828,  while  captur- 
ing a  whale;  Capt.  Frank  Smith,  in  seven  successive  voyages,  in  1831-37, 
brought  home  17.301  barrels  of  oil ;  and  Capt.  James  Smith,  the  third  brother, 
made  fame  and  fortune,  but  left  whaling  for  commander  of  a  packet  between 
Honolulu  and  San  Francisco.  Capt.  "Jim"  Smith,  of  the  "Manhansett,"  who 
is  really  known  wherever  a  college  boy  goes  for  his  skill  and  urbanity,  is  thq 
youngest  ex-whaler  in  New  London.  The  names  of  Morgan,  Smith,  Blyden- 
burgh,  Davis,  Chapell,  Green,  Ward,  Tinker,  Buddington,  Hempstead,  Baker, 
Brown.  Allyn,  Spicer,  Fuller,  Rice,  Benjamin,  Tyson,  Pendleton,  Fish,  and 
others  are  sure  to  be  thought  of  when  whaling  is  mentioned.  Today  there 
is  very  little  done,  save  for  the  obtaining  of  whalebone,  and  whaling  is 
practically  a  past  industry  as  far  as  New  London  is  concerned. 

The  water  power  of  the  county  soon  began  to  turn  the  wheels  of  cotton 
mills.  The  race  of  merchants  still  continued  to  thrive,  but  the  cotton  industry 
added  to  population  more  rapidly.  In  1840  Norwich  was  the  largest  town  of 
the  county.  During  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  many  a  man  left 
the  county  to  engage  in  foreign  trade  and  return  with  his  "pile." 

In  the  interesting  life  of  Daniel  Wadsworth  Coit,  edited  by  his  nephew. 
Mr.  William  C.  Oilman,  may  be  found  a  very  interesting  proof  that  the  Pil- 
grim blood  still  ran  in  the  veins  of  their  descendants.  The  indenture,  signed 
and  sealed  by  all  the  parties  to  it,  bound  his  employers  to  teach  him  "the 
trade,  art,  and  mystery  of  a  merchant" ;  he  on  his  part,  and  his  father  for  him, 
agreeing  that  "he  shall  of  his  own  free  will  and  accord  his  master  faithfully 
serve,  his  secrets  keep,  and  his  lawful  commands  everywhere  readily  obey; 
shall  not  contract  matrimony;  shall  refrain  from  vice,  and  from  business  on 
his  own  account;  and  in  all  things  shall  behave  himself  as  a  faithful  apprentice 
ought  to  do  during  his  term  of  service."  His  only  compensation  was  to  be 
his  board  and  washing.  The  theory  was  that  the  employer  stood  in  the  place 
of  a  parent  to  the  apprentice,  was  interested  in  his  welfare,  gave  him  special 
opportunities  for  advancement  and  improvement,  with  a  commercial  educa- 
tion that  was  a  full  equivalent  for  his  services.  By  this  system,  now  almost 
obsolete,  except  as  it  may  be  suggested  by  the  youthful  experience  of  Admiral 
Sir  Joseph  Porter  in  "Pinafore,"  he  received  a  training  that  was  invaluable 
in  the  important  and  complicated  transactions  in  which  he  was  concerned  in 


8o  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

later  years.     The  art  of  -writing  a  faultless  business  letter,  acquired  early  in 
life,  was  an  accomplishment  not  to  be  despised,  in  which  he  excelled. 

The  particular  duties  of  the  youngest  clerk,  as  he  describes  them,  were 
"to  open  the  store  at  an  early  hour,  to  sweep  and  dust  the  floors,  to  make  fires 
throughout  the  winter,  and  not  infrequently  to  roll  empty  hogsheads  and 
barrels  through  the  streets  for  packing,  and  to  shoulder  and  carry  goods  from 
one  part  of  the  city  to  another."  If  the  hours  were  no  more  than  sixty  minutes 
long  there  were  more  working  hours  in  twenty-four  than  there  are  now,  and 
that  work  was  often  carried  well  into  the  night,  appears  by  letters  to  his 
parents,  written  when  he  was  "so  sleepy  he  could  hardly  keep  his  eyes  open." 
His  career  is  embodied  to  some  degree  in  the  "Notes  of  Daniel  Wadsworth 
Coit,"  as  follows : 

1787 — November  29.    Born,  Norwich,  Conn. 

1803 — Apprenticed  to  merchants  in  New  York. 

1808 — Began  business  on  his  own  account. 

1818 — September  27.     Sailed  from  New  York  for  Peru. 

1819 — January  14.     Arrived  at  Lima. 

1820 — April.     Sailed  from  Guayaquil  for  Gibraltar. 

1820 — September  27.     Arrived  at  Gibraltar. 

182022 — Traveled  in  Spain,  France,  and  England. 

1822 — Tune.     Sailed  from  London  for  South  America. 

1822 — October.     Arrived  at  Buenos  Ayres. 

1822 — December.    Crossed  the  Andes  to  Valparaiso. 

1823 — December.    Arrived  at  Lima. 

1828 — Tune.     Sailed  from  Lima  for  New  York. 

1829 — May.     Sailed  from  New  York  for  England. 

1829-32 — Traveled  in  Europe. 

1832 — June.     Returned  to  Norwich. 

1833 — October,    ^"isited  Grand  Rapids. 

1834 — September  i.     Married  Harriet  Frances  Coit. 

1834-41 — Lived  in  New  York  and  New  Rochelle. 

1841-47 — Lived  in  Norwich. 

1848 — January.     To  Mexico  for  Howland  and  Aspinwall. 

1849 — March.     From  ^Mexico  to  San  Francisco. 

1849-52 — In  business  in  San  Francisco. 

i8^2 — Tune.    Returned  to  his  home  in  Norwich. 

1876— July  18.     Died.  Norwich. 

From  the  above  it  can  be  seen  that  he  left  home  in  1818  to  be  gone  ten 
years !  That  he  left  again  in  1829  to  be  gone  three  years ;  traveled ;  lived  in 
Norwich,  1841-1847;  left  home  for  four  years,  and  returned  to  remain  twenty- 
four  years,  dying  at  the  age  of  eighty-nine! 


CHAPTER  IV 

LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  ABOUT  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

The  Beginnings  of  Railroads  and  Telegraphs — Old-Time  School  Reminiscences — Celeb- 
rities in  All  Walks  of  Life. 

The  history  of  New  London  County  in  education  has  been  touched  upon. 
Its  history  in  banking,  in  the  professions,  in  public  improvements,  in  religious 
affairs,  in  industrial  development,  and  in  various  other  aspects  of  community 
life,  will  be  discussed  in  special  articles.  It  is  fair  to  say  that  the  county  has 
been  progressive  in  its  activities. 

As  early  as  1800  was  built  the  turnpike  between  Norwich  and  New 
London,  "the  first  turnpike  built  in  the  United  States,"  states  Dr.  Dwight  in 
his  "Travels."  Adams  Express  Company  was  started  as  an  enterprise  in 
Norwich  and  New  London.  Regular  steamship  connection  with  New  York 
started  as  early  as  1816.  The  tunnel  on  the  Norwich  &  Worcester  railroad, 
just  outside  of  Norwich,  is  the  first  railroad  tunnel  constructed  in  the  United 
States.  The  Norwich  &  Worcester  railroad  was  one  of  the  earliest  in  the 
country.  As  early  as  1847  a  telegraph  company  was  started  by  citizens  of 
New  London  and  Norwch.  The  railroad  from  New  London  to  New  Haven 
(1849-52)  completed  the  first  railroad  connection  between  Boston  and  New 
York.  The  New  London,  Willimantic  &  Springfield  railroad  was  built 
by  1850.  In  whaling  and  seal  fisheries  the  hardy  navigators  of  New  London 
and  Stonington  were  pioneers  in  southern  waters.  The  Rogers  Brothers  were 
captain  and  sailing  master  of  the  "Savannah,"  the  first  steamship  to  cross  the 
ocean.  The  abundant  water  power  of  the  county  gave  it  an  early  start  in 
manufacturing,  especially  in  the  paper  and  cotton  industries.  The  two  largest 
steamships  ever  built  in  America,  "The  Minnesota"  and  "The  Dakota,"  each 
of  3,300  tons,  were  built  in  Groton. 

In  the  Civil  War  the  county  was  the  home  of  the  Connecticut  War  Gov- 
ernor, and  sent  far  more  men  than  its  quota.  In  the  period  of  reconstruction 
after  the  war,  New  London  county  throve  in  wealth  and  population.  To 
recount  the  new  enterprises  started,  the  patents  granted  to  men  of  the  county, 
the  public  improvements  made,  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  outline 
history  of  the  county.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  by  1910  the  population  had 
increased  to  91,253. 

The  effects  of  steam  transportation  by  land  and  sea  were  soon  felt  in 
the  prosperity  of  the  county.  Before  1850,  the  Norwich  &  Worcester,  the 
New  London  Northern,  the  New  York,  Providence  &  Boston  railroad,  the 
Shore  Line,  had  been  chartered,  and  regular  steamboat  service  established 
with  New  York.  The  age  of  steam  brought  prosperity  and  increasing  popu- 
lation. The  census  of  i860  shows  a  population  of  over  60,000  in  the  county. 
Schools  had  been  built  generally,  college  training  had  become  not  unusual, 
the  press  had  developed,  New  London  county  still  continued  to  furnish  men 


( 


82  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

of  influence  in  the  nation.  Before  1850  the  countj^  had  sent  eight  men  to  be 
governors  of  Connecticut,  five  men  to  be  chief  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State,  and  three  United  States  Senators,  and  twelve  members  of  Con- 
gress. From  the  old  home  had  gone  forth  men  who  made  their  mark  in 
other  parts  of  the  Union. 

What  life  was  at  that  time  may  be  seen  by  a  letter  sent  to  Norwich  by 
Donald  G.  Mitchell,  "Ik  Marvel,"  called  "Looking  Back  at  Boyhood": 

I  pity  those  young  folks  who  pass  their  early  years  without  having  any 
home  knowledge  of  gardens  or  orchards.  City  schools  and  city  pavements 
are  all  very  well ;  but  I  think  if  my  childish  feet  had  not  known  of  every-day 
trampings  through  garden  alleys  or  on  wood  walks,  and  of  climbings  in 
hay-lofts  or  among  apple  boughs  when  fruit  began  to  turn,  half  of  the  joys 
of  boyhood,  as  I  look  back  at  them,  would  be  plucked  away. 

So  it  happens,  that  when  I  am  asked  for  some  reminiscences  of  those 
early  days,  gone  for  sixty  years  or  more,  the  great  trees  that  sheltered  my 
first  home  stir  their  branches  again.  Again  I  see  the  showers  of  dancing 
petals  from  the  May  bloom  of  apple  or  peach  trees  strewing  the  grass,  or  the 
brown  garden  mold,  with  a  little  of  that  old  exultation  of  feeling  which  is 
almost  as  good  as  a  prayer — in  way  of  thanksgiving. 

I  think  I  could  find  my  way  now  through  all  the  involvements  of  new 
buildings  and  new  plantings  on  ground  that  I  have  not  visited  for  fifty  years, 
to  the  spot  where  the  blood  peach  grew,  and  where  the  mulberry  stood  and 
the  greengage  loaded  with  fruit  in  its  harvest  time,  and  the  delightful  white- 
blooming  crab,  lifting  its  odors  into  the  near  window  of  the  "boys'  room." 

Then  there  was  a  curiouslj'  misshapen  apple  tree  in  the  far  orchard, 
with  trunk  almost  prone  upon  the  ground,  as  if  Providence  had  designed  it 
for  children  to  clamber  upon.  What  a  tree  it  was  to  climb !  There  many  a 
time  we  toddlers  used  to  sit,  pondering  on  our  future,  when  the  young  robins 
in  the  nest  overhead  would  be  fully  fledged,  catching  glimpses,  too,  before 
yet  leaves  were  fully  out,  of  the  brown  hermitage  or  study  upon  the  near 
wooded  hillside,  where  my  father,  who  was  a  clergyman,  wrought  at  his 
sermons. 

It  is  only  a  dim  image  of  him  that  I  can  conjure  up  as  he  strode  at 
noontime  down  the  hill.  Catching  up  the  youngest  of  us  with  a  joyous, 
proud  laugh,  he  led  the  toddling  party — the  nurse  bringing  up  the  rear — in 
a  rollicking  procession  homeward. 

A  more  distinct  yet  less  home-like  image  of  this  clergyman  I  have  in 
mind  as  he  leaned  over  the  pulpit  of  a  Sunday,  with  a  solemnity  of  manner 
that  put  one  in  awe,  and  with  an  earnestness  of  speech  that  made  the  Bible 
stories  he  expounded  seem  very  real. 

But  the  sermons  of  those  davs  were  very  long  for  children.  It  must 
have  been,  usually,  before  the  middle  of  the  discourse  that  I  went  foraging 
about  the  square  pew,  visiting  an  aunt  who  almost  always  had  peppermints 
in  her  bag,  or  in  lack  of  this  diversion  I  could  toy  with  the  foot-stove  under 
my  mother's  gown,  or  build  fortifications  with  the  hymn-books. 

The  "lesser"  Westminster  Catechism  also,  with  which  we  had  wrestlings, 
was  somewhat  heavy  and  intellectually  remote.  But  it  was  pleasantly  tem- 
pered by  the  play  of  the  parlor  fire,  or  the  benignly  approving  smiles  when 
answerings  were  prompt.  In  summer  weather  the  song  of  a  cat-bird  or 
brown-thrasher  in  the  near  tulip-tree  chased  away  all  the  tedium  of  the  West-- 
minster  divines,  or  perhaps  lifted  it  into  a  celestial  atmosphere. 

The  Bible  stories,  though,  as  they  tripped  from  my  mother's  tongue,  were 


LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  83 

always  delightful.  I  thought  then,  and  still  think — at  sixty-nine ! — that  her 
ways  of  religious  teaching  were  by  many  odds  better  than  that  of  the  West- 
minster divines.  And  there  were  some  of  her  readings  from  the  hymn-book 
that  tingle  in  my  ears  today. 

That  compulsory  Bible-reading,  chapter  after  chapter,  and  day  by  day, 
so  common  in  well-regulated  families  of  those  times,  has  for  me  a  good  many 
ungrateful  memories.  Wrathful,  unwholesome  burnings  were  kindled  by  this 
enforced  rote  reading  of  a  book  wherefrom  gladsome  and  hopeful  splendors 
ought  to  shine. 

Of  other  earliest  reading  I  remember  with  distinctness  that  great  budget 
of  travel  and  adventure,  good  for  week-days  or  Sunday,  called  "The  Pilgrim's 
Progress."  Mercy,  and  Great-heart,  and  Christian,  and  Giant  Despair,  too, 
were  of  our  family.  Nor  can  I  cease  to  call  to  mind  gratefully  the  good 
woman  (Maria  Edgeworth)  who  in  the  earliest  days  of  our  listening  to 
stories  made  us  acquainted  with  the  "Basket-maker's"  children  who  scotched 
the  carriage  wheels,  and  with  "Lazy  Lawrence"  and  "Eton  Montem." 

At  what  precise  age  I  went  to  my  first  school  I  cannot  say.  It  may  have 
been  five  or  six.  A  roundabout  blue  jacket  with  bell  buttons  I  know  I  had, 
and  a  proud  tramp  past  the  neighbors'  houses. 

The  mistress  was  an  excellent  woman,  everybody  said,  with  a  red  ruler 
and  discipline,  and  spectacles.  .A^  tap  from  her  spectacle-case  was  a  sum- 
mons every  morning  to  listen  to  her  reading,  in  quiet  monotone,  of  a  chapter 
in  the  Bible;  after  which,  in  the  same  murmurous  way,  she  said  a  prayer. 

She  taught  arithmetic  out  of  Colburn,  I  think,  and  Woodbridge's  Geog- 
raphy to  the  older  ones ;  but  her  prime  force  was  lavished  upon  spelling.  We 
had  field-days  in  that,  for  which  we  were  marshalled  by  companies,  toeing 
a  crack  in  the  oaken  floor.  What  an  admiring  gaze  I  lifted  up  upon  the 
tall  fellows  who  went  with  a  wondrous  glibness  through  the  intricacies  of 
such  words  as  "im-prac-ti-ca-bil-i-ty" ! 

The  mistress  had  her  own  curious  methods  of  punishment ;  and  I  dimly 
remember  how  an  obstreperous  boy  was  once  shut  under  the  lid  of  the  big 
writing-desk — not  for  very  long,  I  suspect.  But  the  recollection  of  it,  and 
of  his  sharp  wail  of  protest,  gave  a  very  lively  emphasis  to  my  reading,  years 
after,  of  Roger's  story  of  the  Italian  bride  Ginevra  who  closed  the  lid  of  a 
Venetian  chest  upon  herself  in  some  remote  loft  where  her  skeleton,  and 
her  yellowed  laces,  were  found  years  afterwards  by  accident. 

Another  of  the  mistress's  methods  of  subduing  masculine  revolt  was  in 
tying  a  girl's  bonnet  upon  a  boy's  head.  I  have  a  lingering  sense  now  of 
some  such  early  chastisement,  and  of  the  wearisome  pasteboard  stiffness,  and 
odors  of  the  bonnet! 

Of  associates  on  those  school  benches.  I  remember  with  most  distinctness 
a  tallish  boy,  my  senior  by  two  years  or  so,  who  befriended  me  in  many 
skirmishes,  decoyed  me  often  into  his  leafy  dooryard,  half-way  to  my  home, 
where  luscious  cherries  grew,  and  by  a  hundred  kindly  offices  during  many 
succeeding  years  cemented  a  friendship  of  which  I  have  been  always  proud. 
A  photograph  of  his  emaciated,  but  noble  face,  as  he  lay  upon  his  death- 
bed in  Paris,  is  before  me  as  I  write. 

Another  first  school  which  I  knew  as  privileged  pupil — not  esteeming  the 
privilege  largely — was  in  the  old  town  of  Wethersfield,  where  I  went  on 
visits  to  my  grandfather.  I  remember  his  great  shock  of  snowy  white  hair, 
and  how  he  was  bowed  with  age.  He  wore  most  times  long  gray  hose,  with 
knee  buckles,  and  a  huge  coat  like  those  in  Franklin  pictures,  whose  pockets 
were  often  bulged  out  with  a  biscuit  or  an  ear  of  corn.  With  these  he  loved 
to  pamper  his  white  pony,  or  other  favorite  beast. 


84  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

The  school  to  which  the  old  gentleman  introduced  me  solemnly  was  near 
by,  and  of  the  Lancastrian  order.  Mr.  Joseph  Lancaster  had  come  over 
from  England  not  many  years  before  to  indoctrinate  America. 

There  was  great  drill  of  limbs  and  voices ;  but  what  specially  impressed  me 
was  a  long  tray  or  trough  of  moistened  sand,  where  we  were  taught  to  print 
letters.  I  think  I  came  there  to  a  trick  of  making  printed  letters  which  was 
never  lost. 

There  was  a  quiet  dignity  about  Wethersfield  streets  in  that  day.  There 
were  great  quiet  houses  before  which  mighty  trees  grew — houses  of  the 
Welles,  of  the  Chesters,  of  the  Webbs — in  some  of  which  Washington  had 
lodged  in  his  comings  or  goings. 

It  was  through  that  quiet  Wethersfield  street,  and  by  way  of  the  "Stage" 
oflfice  at  Slocomb's  Hotel  in  Hartford,  that  I  must  have  traveled  first  to  Judge 
Hall's  Ellington  school.  There  for  six  ensuing  years,  off  and  on,  I  wrestled 
with  arithmetic  and  declamation,  and  Latin  and  Greek.  It  was  a  huge  build- 
ing— every  vestige  gone  now — upon  a  gentle  eminence  overlooking  a  peace- 
ful valley  town.  I  am  sure  some  glimpses  of  the  life  there  must  have  found 
their  way  into  some  little  books  which  I  have  had  the  temerity  to  publish. 

The  principal,  a  kindly,  dignified  old  gentleman,  lived  apart,  in  a  house 
amongst  gardens  and  orchards;  but  the  superintendent,  the  English  master, 
the  matron  and  the  monitors,  were  all  housed  with  us,  and  looked  sharply 
after  discipline. 

When  I  hear  boys  of  near  kith  complaining  of  the  hardships  they  endure, 
I  love  to  set  before  them  a  picture  of  the  cold  chambers  opening  upon  the 
corridors  in  that  huge  building. 

We  dressed  there  by  the  dim  light  coming  through  ventilators  over  the 
doors,  from  lamps  swinging  in  the  hall.  After  this  it  was  needful  to  take  a 
swift  rush  out  of  doors,  in  all  weathers,  for  a  plunge  into  the  washroom  door, 
where  we  made  our  ablutions.  Another  outside  rush  followed  for  the  doors 
opening  upon  the  dining-hall,  where  morning  prayers  were  said.  Then  an 
hour  of  study  in  a  room  reeking  with  the  fumes  of  whale-oil  lamps  went 
before  the  summons  to  breakfast. 

There  were  two  schoolrooms.  The  larger  was  always  presided  over  by 
a  teacher  who  was  nothing  if  not  watchful.  The  smaller  was  allotted  to  a 
higher  range  of  boys,  and  here  the  superintendent  appeared  at  intervals  to 
hear  recititations. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  pride  and  joy  with  which  I  heard  the  superin- 
tendent—I think  it  was  Judge  Taft,  thereafter  Attorney  General,  and  Minister 
to  Russia — announce,  once  upon  a  time,  my  promotion  to  the  south  school- 
room. Frank  Blair,  the  general  of  Chickamauga,  was  a  bench-mate  with 
me  there.  Once  upon  a  "composition"  day  we  were  pitted  against  each  other; 
but  who  won  the  better  marks  I  really  cannot  say. 

Teacher  Taft  was  an  athlete.  He  could  whip  with  enormous  vigor  (some 
feoys  said),  but  I  have  onlv  the  kindest  recollections  of  him.  I  used  to  look 
on  with  amazed  gratification  as  he  lifted  six  "fifty-sixes,"  strung  upon  a 
pole,  in  the  little  grocery  shop  past  which  we  walked  on  our  way  to  swim 
in  Snipsic  Lake. 

What  a  beautiful  sheet  of  water  it  was  in  those  days !  Its  old  shores  are 
now  all  submerged  and  blotted  out  by  manufacturers'  dams.  What  a  joyous, 
rollicking  progress  we  made  homeward,  of  a  Saturday  afternoon,  with  the 
cupola  and  the  great  bulk  of  building  lifting  in  our  front  against  the  west- 
ern sky! 

The  strong  point  of  the  teaching  at  Ellington  was,  I  think,  Latin.  I  am 
certain  that  before  half  my  time  there  was  up,  I  could  repeat  all  the  rules 
in  Adams' Latin  Grammar  verbatim,  backward  or  forward. 


LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  85 

As  for  longs  and  shorts  and  results  and  quantities  and  the  makeup  of 
a  proper  hexameter,  these  were  driven  into  my  brain  and  riveted.  Even 
now  I  am  dimly  conscious  on  uneasy  nights,  of  the  Quadrupcdante  putretn 
sonitu  making  its  way  through  my  dreams  with  the  old  schoolboy  gallop. 

I  could  stretch  this  screed  farther,  but  the  types  forbid.  The  home,  with 
a  glimpse  of  which  I  began  the  paper,  had  been  broken  up  a  long  time  before 
the  high  school  experience  came  to  an  end.  Later,  in  the  spring  of  1837,  the 
shattered,  invalid  remnant  of  its  flock  was  sailing  homeward  from  a  winter 
in  Santa  Cruz.  In  Julv  of  the  same  year  I  set  off  from  Ellington,  by  the 
"Hartford.  Ware  and  Keene  Dispatch  Line"  of  stages,  seated  beside  the 
driver,  with  twenty  dollars  in  my  pocket  and  my  trunk  on  the  roof  of  the 
coach,  to  enter  Yale  College. 

The  military  history  of  the  county  will  be  given  elsewhere.  The  great 
"war  governor,"  William  A.  Buckingham,  was  a  resident  of  Norwich,  born 
at  Lebanon. 

Since  Civil  War  days,  the  county  has  grown  in  population  to  over  155,000 
in  1920.  The  remarkable  feature  in  the  growth  of  population  of  the  country 
for  the  past  fifty  years  has  been  the  influx  of  foreign  born.  This  county, 
like  the  rest  of  New  England,  has  been  engaged  in  absorbing  a  mixed  foreign 
population  into  the  institutions  with  which  they  are  unfamiliar.  The  great 
instrument  for  doing  this  has  been  the  public  school  system,  which  will  be 
treated  of  in  a  special  chapter  on  education. 

The  county  history  is  very  rich  in  biography.  Sketches  of  the  lives  of 
many  famous  individuals  are  inserted  hereinafter.  The  list  is  by  no  means 
exhaustive,  for  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  equal  area  and  population  in  our 
country  is  richer  in  ties  of  relationship  with  the  makers  of  American  history. 

Alexander  Von  Humboldt  once  wrote  that,  "judged  by  the  number  of 
centenarians,"  a  semicircular  region  with  New  London  as  its  center  and  a 
radius  of  fifteen  miles  was  "the  most  .healthful  spot  on  the  globe." 

The  first  railroad  tunnel  in  America  was  made  in  this  county. 

From  New  London  county  have  come  ancestors  of  at  least  six  Presidents; 
Fillmore,  Grant,  Garfield,  Hayes,  Cleveland,  and  Harding. 

The  father  of  Oliver  Perry,  of  Lake  Erie  fame,  and  of  Matthew  Perry, 
who  made  the  historic  voyage  opening  up  Japan  to  western  civilization,  kept 
a  store  in  Norwich. 

The  two  largest  vessels  ever  built  in  America,  the  "Minnesota"  and 
"Dakota,"  said  to  be  each  of  3,300  tons  burden,  were  built  at  Groton. 

Dartmouth  College  was  founded  in  what  was  then  Lebanon,  now  the 
town  of  Columbia,  in  Windham  county. 

The  oldest  burial  ground  in  the  county  is  in  New  London,  dating 
from  1653. 

Wolves  were  once  so  abundant  in  the  county  that  the  early  settlers 
paid  a  bounty  of  twenty  shillings  for  each  one  killed. 

The  commerce  of  New  London  was  at  one  time  excelled  by  only  two 
ports  in  the  country — Boston  and  New  York. 

The  Shaw  mansion  in  New  London  was  constructed  by  Acadians  driven 


86  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

from  home  at  the  time  described  by  Longfellow  in  "Evangeline." 

The  first  Naval  Expedition  sent  out  by  the  Continental  Congress  left 
New  London  in  January,  1776. 

The  "Savannah,"  officered  by  the  Rogers  Brothers  of  New  London,  was 
the  first  vessel  to  "steam"  across  the  Atlantic. 

Silas  Deane,  who  was  appointed  one  of  the  Peace  Commission  at  the 
end  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  came  from  Preston. 

In  early  days  in  this  county,  as  elsewhere,  churches  were  often  founded 
by  lotteries,  and  the  expenses  of  installing  clergymen  frequently  included  a 
considerable  item  for  "liquor." 

Stephen  Whitney,  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  Great  Pacific  railway, 
came  from  this  county,  as  did  President  Tuttle,  of  the  Boston  &  Maine  rail- 
road. 

Andrew  Jackson  visited  Norwich  at  the  dedication  of  the  Uncas  Monu- 
ment. He  pronounced  the  parade  one  of  the  longest  he  had  seen  in  a  place 
of  the  size  (the  boys  circled  around  behind  him  and  rejoined  the  procession 
in  a  well  nigh  endless  chain). 

The  two  leading  men  of  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  John  Winthrop,  the 
younger,  and  John  Mason,  were  long  residents  of  this  county. 

This  county  contains  two  of  the  five  oldest  cities  in  the  State,  and  is  one 
of  the  four  original  counties  in  Connecticut. 

In  1799  New  London  was  almost  depopulated  by  yellow  fever. 

Three  citizens  of  Norwich  have  given  to  Yale  College  the  largest  dona- 
tions which,  at  each  successive  time,  its  treasury  had  received  from  any  indi- 
vidual. These  men  were  Major  James  Fitch,  Dr.  Daniel  Lathrop,  and  Dr. 
Alfred  E.  Perkins. 

Norwich  has  an  unpleasant  distinction  in  one  instance  in  being  the 
birthplace  of  Benedict  Arnold.     There  is  nothing  to  be  added. 

Avery  Waitstill,  a  native  of  Groton,  removed  to  North  Carolina,  where 
in  1775  he  became  a  member  of  the  Mecklenburg  Convention,  and  as  such 
was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  famous  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence. 

James  Cook  Ayer,  the  father  of  the  "patent  medicine"  business,  was  born 
in  Groton.  He  established  a  medicine  factory  in  Lowell,  and  accumulated  a 
fortune  estimated  at  $20,000,000.  For  years  he  published  and  distributed  free 
five  million  copies  of  "Ayer's  Almanac,"  largely  devoted  to  advertising  his 
goods.  For  some  years  before  his  death,  he  was  confined  in  an  asylum,  his 
brain  having  become  affected. 

Isaac  Backus,  a  Baptist  minister,  was  born  in  Norwich,  1724.  He  led  in 
the  "Separatist"  movement,  for  years  held  to  open  communion,  but  at  length 
abandoned  it.  He  was  a  voluminous  writer  on  historical  as  well  as  religious 
subjects.  For  thirty-four  years  he  was  a  trustee  of  Rhode  Island  College, 
now  Brown  University. 

Anna  Warner  Bailey,  born  in  Groton,  1758,  and  died  there  in  1850,  wife 
of  Captain  Elijah  Bailey,  of  that  place,  witnessed  the  massacre  by  the  British 


LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  87 

at  Fort  Griswold,  September  6,  1781.  The  next  day  she  visited  the  spot, 
searching  for  an  uncle,  whom  she  found  fatally  wounded,  and  to  whom  she 
brought  his  wife  and  child.  When  the  British  were  threatening  New  London 
in  July,  1813,  "Mother  Bailey,"  as  she  was  known,  aided  the  patriots  by 
tearing  up  garments  for  cartridge  making. 

Edward  Sheffield  Bartholomew,  born  in  Colchester,  1822,  died  in  Italy, 
1858,  a  sculptor  of  great  ability,  performed  his  work  in  Rome  during  his 
later  years.    Many  of  his  productions  are  in  the  Wadsworth  Gallery,  Hartford. 

Dr.  Timothy  Dwight,  twelfth  president  of  Yale  College,  was  a  native 
of  Norwich,  son  of  James  Dwight,  and  grandson  of  Timothy  Dwight,  the 
third  president  of  the  institution.  It  was  under  the  presidency  of  him  whose 
name  heads  this  paragraph,  that  the  college  received  the  legal  title  of  Uni- 
versity. President  Dwight  was  highly  successful  in  extending  the  curriculum 
of  the  institution,  and  in  advancing  its  material  interests.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  American  committee  for  the  revision  of  the  English  version  of  the 
Bible  from  1872  to  its  completion  in  1885.  He  was  the  author  of  several 
volumes,  notably  one  on  "The  True  Ideal  of  an  American  University,"  which 
appeared  serially  in  1871-72  in  "The  New  Englander,"  of  which  he  was  then 
editor,  and  which  had  much  to  do  in  effecting  the  transition  of  Yale  from  a 
collegiate  to  a  university  status. 

Daniel  Coit  Gilman,  first  president  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  was 
born  in  Norwich,  July  6,  1831. 

Frederick  Stuart  Church,  famous  as  a  painter  and  etcher,  was  a  resi- 
dent here. 

Jedidiah  Huntington,  soldier  of  the  Revolution  and  one  of  the  signers  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was  born  in  Norwich,  August  4.  1743,  and 
died  in  New  London,  September  25,  1818.  Jabez  Huntington,  his  father,  was 
a  wealthy  merchant  and  a  patriot  leader;  he  served  three  years  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary army,  and  only  leaving  it  on  account  of  failing  health.  The  son,  a 
Harvard  graduate,  entered  the  army  as  a  captain  in  April,  1775,  two  years 
later  was  made  a  brigadier-general,  and  served  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
until  the  close  of  the  war,  and  was  breveted  major-general.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  two  courts-martial — that  which  tried  General  Charles  Lee,  and  that 
which  convicted  Major  Andre.  He  was  sheriff  of  New  London  county.  State 
treasurer  of  Connecticut,  and  collector  of  customs  at  New  London.  He  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  and  a  man  of  deep  piety 
and  charitable  disposition. 

The  famous  explorer,  John  Ledyard,  was  a  native  of  Groton,  born  in 
1751,  son  of  John  and  Mary  (Hempstead)  Ledyard,  his  father  a  ship  captain. 
Young  Led)'ard  was  a  mere  child  when  his  father  died,  and  he  was  brought 
up  in  the  home  of  his  grandfather.  At  the  age  of  eighteen,  his  benefactor 
having  died.  Ledyard  entered  Dartmouth  College  as  a  divinity  student,  with 
a  desire  to  fit  himself  for  missionary  work  among  the  Indians,  to  whom  he 
was  so  drawn  that  he  soon  abandoned  his  studies  and  made  his  abode  among 
them.    This  was  the  beginning  of  his  venturesome  career.     Making  a  canoe 


88  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

voyage  down  the  Connecticut  river  to  Hartford,  he  went  on  to  New  London, 
where  he  shipped  as  a  common  sailor  in  a  vessel  bound  for  Gibraltar.  There 
he  enlisted  in  the  British  army,  and  after  his  discharge  therefrom  voyaged 
to  the  West  Indies  and  thence  to  New  York  and  London.  In  the  latter  place 
he  fell  in  company  with  Captain  Cook,  who  was  preparing  for  his  third  and 
what  was  destined  to  be  his  last  great  voyage.  The  two  were  mutually 
pleased  with  each  other,  and  the  younger  man  became  the  commander's  most 
trusted  lieutenant,  and  was  by  his  side  when  Captain  Cook  was  killed  on 
one  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  February  14,  1779.  Returning  with  the  expedi- 
tion to  England  by  way  of  Kamtchatka,  the  British  authorities  in  accordance 
with  its  naval  rules  took  from  Ledyard  his  notes  of  the  expedition.  For  two 
years  Ledyard  remained  in  the  British  navy,  leaving  it  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  rather  than  do  battle  against  his  countrymen.  In  1784  he  con- 
ceived an  idea  of  fitting  out  an  expedition  to  explore  the  northwestern  Amer- 
ican coast,  and  visited  Spain  and  France  in  hopes  of  securing  necessary  means, 
but  without  success.  Finally,  at  London,  he  found  friendly  scientists  who 
furthered  his  purpose,  and  he  voyaged  to  Finland  and  thence  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, where  he  started  for  Siberia,  but  under  suspicion  of  being  a  spy  was 
harried  out  of  Russia  into  Poland.  Returning  to  London,  an  expedition  was 
outfitted  for  him  to  explore  the  interior  of  Africa,  and  he  sailed  in  June,  1788, 
but  at  Cairo  sickened  and  died,  January  17,  1789.  His  notes  of  travel  were 
of  value,  and  to  this  day  his  narrative  of  Captain  Cook's  voyage  is  famed  for 
its  vividness  and  brilliance.  He  was  a  nephew  of  William  Ledyard,  who  was 
brutally  m.urdered  by  the  Tory  Major  Bromfield,  at  Fort  Griswold,  Groton 
Heights,  Connecticut,  after  its  surrender,  in  1781. 

Isaac  H.  Bromley,  whom  Chauncey  M.  Depew  spoke  of  as  "a  most  con- 
scientious journalist,  and  with  whom  no  personal  relations  interfered  with 
what  he  felt  was  a  public  duty,"  was  born  at  Norwich,  March  6,  1833,  and 
died  there,  August  11.  1898;  his  parents  were  Isaac  and  Mary  (Hill)  Bromley. 
He  was  also  married  in  Norwich,  to  Adelaide,  daughter  of  Jabez  and  Clarissa 
T.  Roath.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  but  journalism  claimed  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  work.  During  the  Civil  War  he  was  a  captain  in  the  i8th 
Connecticut  Regiment.  In  1858  he  established  the  Norwich  "Morning  Bulle- 
tin," and  conducted  it  until  1868,  when  he  left  it  to  become  editor  and  part 
owner  of  the  Hartford  "Evening  Post."  After  leaving  the  paper  last  named 
he  served  in  turn  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  New  York  "Sun"  and  "Tribune," 
and  after  ten  years  on  the  latter  paper  became  editor  of  the  "Commercial 
Advertiser,"  a  position  which  he  relinquished  to  accept  appointment  as  a 
government  director  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad,  serving  as  such  until  1884, 
when  he  took  the  editorial  management  of  the  Rochester  "Post-Express."  In 
October,  i8gi,  he  returned  to  the  New  York  "Tribune,"  with  which  he  was 
associated  until  a  few  months  before  his  death.  He  was  one  of  the  organizing 
members  of  Sedgwick  Post,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Norwich. 

Charles  Harold  Davis,  one  of  America's  foremost  landscape  painters,  a 
native  of  Massachusetts,  following  ten  years'  professional  studies  in  France 


LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  89 

and  other  art  centers,  for  five  years  resided  continually  at  Mystic,  winter  as 
well  as  summer,  painting  directly  from  nature.     His  fame  is  world-wide. 

Samson  Occum  is  a  name  famous  in  association  with  what  became  Dart- 
mouth College.  He  was  a  Mohegan  Indian  living  in  New  London  county, 
who  was  converted  and  educated  by  Eleazer  Wheelock,  the  founder  of  the 
above  named  institution.  Occum  came  to  fame  as  a  preacher,  and  was  a 
valuable  aid  to  his  instructor  in  his  educational  work  and  in  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  schools  and  academies.  In  1766  Occum  and  Rev.  Nathaniel  Whitaker, 
of  Norwich,  visited  Great  Britain  and  raised  nearly  £12,000  (a  large  sum  in 
those  days)  for  these  purposes. 

Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  famous  as  divine  and  author,  and  especially  as  an 
exponent  of  the  so-called  liberal  theology,  born  in  Roxbury,  Massachusetts, 
was  fitted  for  college  in  Norwich. 

Bela  Lyon  Pratt,  the  well-known  sculptor,  was  a  native  of  Norwich,  a 
son  of  George  and  Sarah  Victoria  (Whittlesey)  Pratt,  his  father  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  lawyers  in  Connecticut.  Young  Pratt  began  drawing  and 
modeling  at  home  while  but  a  child,  and  received  his  technical  training  in  the 
School  of  Fine  Arts  of  Yale  University,  in  the  Art  Students'  League  of  New 
York  City  under  St.  Gaudens,  and  in  Paris  under  Chapin  and  Falguiere, 
finally  entering  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  at  the  head  of  his  class  and  winning 
three  medals  and  two  prizes.  He  was  soon  afterward  made  instructor  in 
modeling  in  the  Muesum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston.  Among  his  many  fine  works 
are  some  of  great  local  interest — the  .A.very  bust,  "the  Puritan,"  at  Groton, 
and  the  bronze  statue  of  John  Winthrop  at  New  London. 

Christopher  R.  Perry,  who  served  with  credit  in  both  the  American  army 
and  navy  during  the  Revolution,  was  for  a  time  a  resident  of  Norwich,  where 
he  conducted  a  store.  Two  of  his  sons  are  among  the  most  conspicuous 
figures  of  their  day — Oliver  Hazard  Perry,  the  "Don't  give  up  the  ship"  hero 
of  Lake  Erie  during  the  war  with  Great  Britain  in  1812-14;  and  Matthew 
Galbraith  Perry,  who  crowned  a  notable  naval  career  with  the  opening  up 
of  Japan  to  the  commerce  of  the  world. 

The  brilliant  Commodore  Stephen  Decatur,  of  Tripoli  fame,  and  captor 
of  the  British  frigate  "Macedonian,"  was  for  a  long  period  during  the  war  of 
1812-14  an  enforced  sojourner  in  the  Thames  river,  the  mouth  of  which  was 
blockaded  by  a  squadron  of  the  enemy.  His  fall  in  the  duel  with  Commodore 
Barron  is  one  of  the  pitiful  tragedies  of  our  naval  history. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  our  county,  and  scenes 
and  reminiscences  of  Norwich  figure  throughout  his  famous  "Star  Papers." 
Lebanon  was  the  home  of  the  famous  Trumbull  family,  which  had  as 
one  of  its  most  distinguished  representatives  Colonel  John  Trumbull,  of 
Revolutionary  fame,  but  more  famous  as  the  historical  painter  of  that  stupen- 
dous period,  most  of  which  are  in  the  Art  Gallery  at  Yale  University. 

Dr.  William  Thompson  Lusk,  one  of  the  world's  greatest  physicians, 
and  a  distinguished  professional  instructor  and  author,  was  born  in  Norwich, 
May  23,  1838,  and  died  June  12,  1897,  son  of  Sylvester  Graham  and  Elizabeth 


go  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Freeman  (Adams)  Lusk.  His  father  was  a  well-known  merchant,  senior 
member  of  the  Norwich  firm  of  Lusk,  Lathrop  &  Co.  The  son  received  his 
elementary  education  in  the  city  of  his  birth,  but  on  account  of  an  eye 
affection  was  obliged  to  leave  college  in  his  freshman  year.  Going  to  Switzer- 
land for  treatment,  and  experiencing  benefit,  he  studied  medicine  in  Heidel- 
berg and  Berlin.  Returning  home  he  entered  the  army  shortly  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  and  served  about  two  years,  rising  to  a  captaincy. 
At  Bull  Run,  under  fire,  he  carried  his  wounded  captain  from  the  field.  He 
completed  his  professional  studies  at  Bellevue  Medical  College,  New  York 
City,  and  graduated  valedictorian  of  his  class.  He  then  pursued  post-graduate 
studies  in  Edinburgh,  Paris,  Vienna  and  Prague.  On  his  return  home  he 
engaged  in  practice  in  Bridgeport.  Connecticut,  later  locating  in  New  York 
City,  where  he  held  first  rank  as  an  operator  and  instructor.  He  was  the 
first  in  America  to  successfully  perform  the  Caesarian  section,  which  he  re- 
peated on  several  occasions  with  a  very  small  percentage  of  mortality.  He 
was  a  prolific  professional  writer,  and  one  of  his  principal  Avorks,  "Science  and 
Art  of  Midwifen,',"  was  translated  into  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  Arabic  and 
other  languages. 

The  village  of  Lyme  was  the  birthplace  of  the  distinguished  lawyer  and 
jurist,  Morrison  R.  Waite,  who  succeeded  Salmon  P.  Chase  as  Chief  Justice 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  appointed  by  President  Grant. 

Governor  William  Alfred  Buckingham,  famous  as  one  of  the  "War  Gov- 
ernors" of  the  Civil  War  period,  and  one  of  the  most  trusted  of  President 
Lincoln's  supporters,  was  born  May  28,  1804,  in  Lebanon,  New  London 
county.  He  was  educated  in  the  local  schools  and  at  Bacon  Academy,  Col- 
chester. He  taught  school  for  a  time,  afterward  serving  as  clerk  in  a  store 
in  Norwich.  After  similar  service  for  a  short  time  in  New  York  City,  he 
returned  to  Norwich,  and  established  a  drygoods  business,  afterward  becom- 
ing a  large  and  successful  manufacturer  of  ingrain  carpets,  and  then  of  rubber 
shoes.  He  was  mayor  of  the  city  for  four  terms ;  and  in  1858  was  elected 
governor,  to  w-hich  office  he  was  returned  for  eight  consecutive  terms.  At 
the  opening  if  the  Civil  War,  he  was  the  first  governor  to  send  to  the  front 
a  completely  equipped  regiment,  pledging  his  personal  credit  to  cover  the 
expense  until  the  legislature  could  be  assembled.  The  successive  quotas  of 
troops  were  always  more  than  filled,  and  under  his  leadership  the  State 
contributed  to  the  army  and  navy  almost  one-half  of  her  able-bodied  popu- 
lation. President  Lincoln  and  Secretary  of  War  Stanton  held  him  in  the 
highest  esteem.  The  war  having  ended.  Governor  Buckingham  declined 
further  service  as  such,  and  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate,  in  which 
he  served  with  conspicuous  ability  until  his  death,  February  5,  1875,  a  short 
time  before  the  end  of  his  senatorial  term.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Broadway  Congregational  Church  of  Norwich  and  of  the  Norwich  Free 
Academy,  and  was  devoted  to  religious  and  charitable  work.  His  home  in 
Norwich  was  purchased  by  Sedgwick  Post  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
and  is  known  as  the  Buckincfham  ^^emorial. 


LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  QT 

Donald  Grant  Mitchell,  who  as  "Ik  Marvel"  gave  untold  delight  to  readers 
of  a  generation  now  well  nigh  passed  away,  v/ith  his  "Dream  Life"  and 
"Reveries  of  a  Bachelor,"  was  a  native  of  Norwich,  born  April  12,  1822,  son 
of  Pastor  Mitchell,  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church  in  Norwich,  and 
grandson  of  the  distinguished  Judge  Stephen  M.  Mitchell,  of  Western  Re- 
serve fame.  After  graduating  from  Yale,  finding  his  health  somewhat  im- 
paired, he  passed  three  years  on  the  farm  of  his  grandfather,  in  Salem,  where 
he  undoubtedly  received  impressions  of  rural  beauties  and  pleasures  which 
he  later  pictured  so  beautifully  in  his  writings.  He  traveled  on  foot  in  Eng- 
land for  more  than  a  year,  and  out  of  his  observations  wrote  his  "Fresh 
Gleanings ;  a  New  Sheaf  from  Old  Fields."  Meantime  he  had  taken  up  law 
studies,  but  unable  to  bear  ofTice  confinement,  made  another  voyage  to  Europe, 
and  was  in  Paris  during  the  revolution  of  1848.  Returning  home,  he  engaged 
in  literary  work,  as  founder  and  editor  of  "The  Lorgnette,"  a  weekly ;  and 
then  producing  in  turn  the  two  volumes  entitled  above,  and  for  which  he  is 
most  famous.  In  1854  President  Pierce  appointed  him  Consul  to  Venice, 
and  where  he  collected  material  of  which  he  made  good  use  in  volumes  and 
magazine  contributions  written  later.  His  earlier  works  were  published  under 
his  nom  de  plume  of  "Ik  Marvel,"  but  when  he  came  to  "My  Farm  of  Edge- 
wood"  and  "Rural  Studies,"  and  others,  he  assumed  his  proper  name.  All  his 
writings  were  characterized  by  tender  yet  manly  sentiment,  and  his  descrip- 
tions of  rural  life  were  enlightening  and  inspiring. 

The  name  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  awakens  a  pathetic  interest  in  con- 
nection with  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  About  the  time  that  gem  of  American 
literature.  Dr.  Holmes'  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,"  was  appearing 
serially  in  "The  Atlantic  Monthly,"  then  in  its  second  year,  the  delightful 
essayist  and  poet  wrote  "The  Last  Leaf."  one  stanza  of  which  appealed  so 
deeply  to  the  martyred  President  that  he  frequently  repeated  it: 

"The  mossy  marbles  rest 
On  the  lips  that  he  has  pressed 

In  their  bloom; 
And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 

On  their  tomb." 

Dr.  Holmes  was  born  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  and  finished  his 
literary  education  at  Harvard.  His  grandfather,  a  resident  of  Woodstock, 
wrote  as  follows  in  his  diary  under  date  of  August  4,  1803,  as  quoted  in  the 
"Life  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,"  by  John  More,  Jr.:  "Mrs.  Temperance 
Holmes,  my  much  honored  and  beloved  mother  (she  was  therefore  Oliver 
W^endell  Holmes'  grandmother),  was  born  at  Norwich  in  Connecticut,  A.  D. 
1733.  .  .  .  My  mother  was  an  admirer  of  learning,  though  she  received 
her  education  in  a  part  of  the  town  of  Norwich  (Newent  parish)  which  did 
not  probably  furnish  her  any  signal  advantages  at  school,  yet  she  had  a 
mother  who  was  at  once  a  school  and  library  to  her."  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  Holmes,  in  his  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,"  speaks  of  the  "Coit 
Elms"  of  Norwich. 


92  XHW  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  v.-ho  ranked  ver>'  high  as  a  poet  and  essayist, 
lived  in  Norwich  during  all  his  boyhood.  He  was  born  in  Hartford,  son  of 
Edmund  Stedman,  a  merchant  of  that  city ;  his  mother  was  Elizabeth  C. 
Dodge,  the  poetess.  His  father  died  when  he  was  but  two  years  old,  and 
he  was  sent  to  his  great-uncle,  James  Stedman,  at  Norwich,  and  where  he 
began  and  continued  his  education  until  his  sixteenth  year,  when  he  entered 
Yale  College.  An  incident  of  his  literary'  career  was  his  service  as  a  corre- 
spondent of  the  "New  York  World,"  from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  during 
the  Civil  War.  He  became  a  member  of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange,  and 
much  of  his  most  excellent  literary  work  was  accomplished  during  the  hours 
that  most  busy  men  give  to  recreation.  During  his  later  years  he  gave  him- 
self entirely  to  literary  work. 

Lydia  Sigourney,  an  author  and  poet  who  has  been  called  "the  American 
Hemans,"  was  a  native  of  Norwich,  born  September  i,  1791,  only  daughter 
of  Ezekiel  and  Sophia  (Wentworth)  Huntley.  She  was  an  ardent  student 
from  her  very  youth,  and  became  proficient  in  Latin  and  Greek.  In  associa- 
tion with  Miss  Ann  M.  Hyde,  she  opened  a  select  school  for  young  ladies, 
and  made  it  so  much  of  a  success  that  after  four  years,  at  the  earnest  solicita- 
tion of  leading  families  in  Hartford,  she  removed  her  school  to  that  city. 
When  about  twenty-four,  on  the  suggestion  of  a  friend,  she  published  "Moral 
Pieces  in  Prose  and  Verse,"  a  collection  of  her  occasional  writings.  The 
volume  was  well  received,  and  paved  the  way  for  her  life  occupation.  In 
1819  she  gave  up  her  school,  and  became  the  wife  of  Charles  Sigourney,  a 
merchant  of  Hartford.  Her  husband,  a  most  congenial  mate,  failed  in  both 
health  and  business,  and  out  of  necessity  she  gave  herself  unreservedly  to 
pen  work,  becoming  one  of  the  most  voluminous  writers  of  her  day,  her 
published  volumes  numbering  nearly  sixty,  and  her  contributions  to  maga- 
zines and  periodicals  some  two  thousand.  Much  of  her  verse  work  was  on 
the  solicitation  of  friends,  on  special  occasions,  and  generally  unrecompensed. 
She  was  a  graceful  writer,  and  all  that  she  produced  was  marked  with  lofty 
sentiment.  She  was  a  devoted  friend  of  the  sorrowing  and  afflicted,  and  in 
Hartford  her  memory  is  held  as  highly  in  honor  for  her  charitable  work  as 
for  her  literary  talent.  She  lived  many  years  in  widowhood,  and  died  at 
Hartford,  June  10,  1865,  in  her  seventy-fifth  year. 

Captain  Samuel  Chester  Reid,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  oflScers  of  the 
old  American  Navy,  was  born  in  Norwich,  August  25,  17S3.  His  father, 
Lieut.  John  Reid,  of  the  British  Navy,  was  taken  prisoner  at  New  London 
on  a  night  in  October,  1778,  while  in  command  of  a  night  boat  expedition 
sent  out  from  the  British  squadron.  While  in  custody,  he  resigned  his  com- 
mission, and  on  being  exchanged  took  sides  with  the  Americans.  In  T781 
he  married  Rebecca  Chester,  a  descendant  in  the  fourth  generation  of  Captain 
Samuel  Chester,  of  the  British  Navy,  who  settled  in  New  London.  Her 
father,  John  Chester,  was  among  the  American  soldiers  at  Bunker  Hill,  and 
afterward  a  member  of  the  Connecticut  convention  which  ratified  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.     Such  was  the  parentage  of  Samuel  Chester 


Bl;iCK    TAVEl;:-.    .\..u\\  iCH      WHKliK     W  ASH  IXliTi  iX    iiKSTKH     T  H  K    MliHT    nF    jrXF 
Z".   1775.      SITE  XOW  (iCcrPIKD  BY  NORWICH  SAVINGS  SOCIETY. 


^ 


-1 


*        il^ 


I!IKTHPLACE    OF    MI:S.    LYDIA    IIFXTLEY    SIGOCKXEY.    ONE    OF    THE    MOST    GIFTED 
r.^r.Tr".K^^^''^^"^"    A.MEUICAX    WKITERS.    Xn\v    THE    RESIDENCE    OF    WILLIAM 


C.   GILMAN 


LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  93 

Reid.  Following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  father,  he  took  to  the  sea  at  the 
age  of  eleven,  but  was  soon  among  the  prisoners  taken  during  the  difificulties 
between  France  and  the  United  States.  Later  he  served  under  Commodore 
Truxton.  In  the  war  of  1812  he  held  the  rank  of  captain,  and  as  commander 
of  the  brig  "General  Armstrong"  performed  one  of  the  most  notable  feats 
in  naval  annals,  off  Fayal,  fighting  with  his  nine  guns  and  ninety  men  a 
British  squadron  of  three  vessels  with  130  guns  and  200  men,  finally  scuttling 
his  ship  rather  than  surrender.  Swimming  ashore,  he  was  taken  into  custody 
by  the  Portuguese  authorities,  who  refused  to  surrender  him  to  the  British, 
and  out  of  which  refusal  grew  an  extended  diplomatic  discussion  which  was 
finally  settled  by  Louis  Napoleon  as  arbitrator,  who  decided  against  the 
American  claim  as  to  neutral  rights.  The  gun  with  which  Reid  sank  his 
vessel  was  presented  to  the  United  States  by  the  King  of  Portugal.  In  peace 
times  Captain  Reid  performed  services  of  the  highest  usefulness — the  inven- 
tion and  construction  of  the  signal  telegraph  at  the  Battery  in  New  York 
and  the  Narrows  between  the  upper  and  lower  bays;  and  the  perfecting  of 
the  pilot  boat  system  at  Sandy  Hook.  He  designed  the  American  flag  as  it 
is  today — the  thirteen  stripes  representing  the  original  States,  and  a  star  for 
each  of  all.  The  flag  of  his  designing  was  first  raised  over  the  National  Hall  of 
Representatives  in  Washington  City  on  April  13,  1818.  Captain  Reid  mar- 
ried Mary,  daughter  of  Captain  Nathan  Jennings,  of  Willington,  Connecticut, 
who  fought  at  Lexington,  crossed  the  Delaware  with  Washington,  and  was 
commended  for  gallantry  at  Trenton. 

Mrs.  Leland  Stanford,  wife  of  the  late  Senator  Stanford  of  California,  was 
a  member  of  the  Lathrop  family  of  Norwich.  In  memory  of  a  son  who  died 
at  the  age  of  sixteen,  named  for  the  father.  Senator  and  Mrs.  Stanford  founded 
the  Leland  Stanford  University,  contributing  for  the  purpose  an  eighty- 
three  thousand  acre  tract  of  land,  valued  at  eight  millions  of  dollars. 

Francis  Hopkinson  Smith,  a  most  talented  artist,  excelling  in  water 
color  landscapes,  also  successful  as  an  author  and  platform  lecturer,  added 
to  his  varied  accomplishments  surpassing  skill  as  a  mechanical  engineer,  his 
most  famous  piece  of  work  in  that  line  being  the  foundation  and  pedestal  of 
the  Statue  of  Liberty  in  New  York  harbor.  He  was  the  designer  and  builder 
of  the  Race  lighthouse  off  New  London,  a  task  which  occupied  him  for  six 
years.    He  vras  a  native  of  Maryland. 

Richard  Mansfield  lived  in  New  London  some  years  before  his  death. 
His  widow,  whose  stage  name  was  Beatrice  Cameron,  continues  to  make  it 
her  legal  residence. 

David  Ames  Wells,  an  economist  of  the  highest  rank,  a  native  of  Massa- 
chusetts, was  for  many  years  identified  with  Norwich,  which  was  his  place 
of  residence  for  over  twenty  years,  and  where  he  died,  November  5,  1898.  He 
was  known  as  a  high-class  mechanician  and  inventor  before  coming  into  the 
field  in  which  he  attained  international  repute;  one  of  his  inventions  was 
the  machine  for  folding  book  and  newspaper  sheets,  and  which  is  practically 
the  same  as  used  at  the  present  time.    Giving  his  attention  to  taxation  prob- 


94  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

lems.  he  produced  his  economic  work,  "Our  Burden  and  Our  Strength"  (1864), 
which  was  an  important  factor  in  the  restoration  of  the  government  credit, 
which  had  been  serioush-  inspired  during  the  Civil  War.  This  led  to  his  being 
appointed  chairman  of  a  congressional  commission  to  devise  a  revenue  taxa- 
tion system,  and  which  eventuated  in  the  creation  of  a  special  Commissioner 
of  the  Revenue,  and  his  appointment  as  such  official.  Among  his  important 
public  services  were  the  redrafting  and  perfecting  of  the  internal  revenue 
laws,  the  introduction  of  the  stamp  system  for  taxes  on  tobacco,  liquors,  etc.; 
and  the  organization  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the  United  States  Treas- 
ury Department.  From  a  Protectionist,  he  became  a  Free  Trader,  and  to 
this  was  due  his  failure  of  reappointment  to  his  revenue  commissionership, 
in  1870.  However,  that  year  he  was  called  to  the  chairmanship  of  a  com- 
mission on  the  New  York  State  tax  laws,  for  which  he  prepared  two  elab- 
orate reports  and  a  revised  code.  In  1872  he  became  a  lecturer  on  economics 
in  Yale  University.  The  remainder  of  his  life  was  passed  in  railroad  arbitra- 
tions and  railroad  and  canal  taxation  questions,  and  in  writing  various  vol- 
umes on  these  and  similar  topics. 

The  Rev.  Horace  Bushnell,  a  divine  of  the  loftiest  spirituality  and  a 
graceful  author,  in  young  manhood  was  a  school  teacher  in  Norwich.  His 
"Nature  and  the  Supernatural,"  published  in  1858,  daring  in  its  time,  became 
profoundly  suggestive  in  the  vast  field  now  illumined  by  the  revelations  of 
evolution.  This  was  but  one  of  several  fine  volumes  from  his  pen.  His 
clerical  life  was  passed  with  the  North  Congregational  Church  in  Hartford, 
but  he  was  frequently  heard  in  public  addresses  in  principal  eastern  cities. 
In  1855,  his  health  being  seriously  impaired,  he  visited  California,  and  was 
there  tendered  the  presidency  of  the  State  University,  which  he  declined. 
Tn  1859  he  resigned  his  pastorate  in  Hartford,  and  devoted  himself  to  literary 
labors.    He  died  in  Hartford,  February  17,  1876. 

John  Fox  Slater,  a  liberal  contributor  to  educational  and  other  philan- 
thropic objects,  was  a  native  of  Rhode  Island,  but  his  life  was  principally 
passed  in  Norwich.  He  was  a  principal  figure  in  manufacturing  enterprises, 
displaying  therein  a  capacity  similar  to  that  of  his  distinguished  uncle,  Samuel 
Slater,  "the  father  of  American  manufactures."  He  was  chiefly  instrumental 
in  the  establishment  of  the  Free  Academy  in  Norwich,  for  which  as  a  tribute 
to  hi?  memory,  two  years  after  his  death  in  Norwich,  May  7,  1884,  his  son, 
William  Albert  Slater,  erected  a  memorial  building.  Mr.  Slater's  greatest 
benefaction  was  his  gift  of  a  million  dollars  in  1882  as  a  fund  for  industrial 
education  of  the  freedmen — the  blacks  emancipated  during  the  Civil  War 
by  President  Lincoln. 

Joseph  Lemuel  Chester,  antiquarian,  born  in  Norwich,  1821,  after  some 
years  devoted  to  journalism  in  Philadelphia,  went  to  England  and  died  in 
London,  May  28,  1882.  He  took  up  his  residence  there  in  order  to  search  out 
the  genealogical  history  of  early  New  Englanders,  and  among  his  works  was 
"Marriage,    Baptismal    and    Burial    Registers   of   the    Collegiate    Church   or 


LITTLE  KNOWN  FACTS  95 

Abbey  of  St.  Peter,  Westminster,"  in  which  edifice  a  tablet  to  his  memory 
was  placed  after  his  death. 

Thomas  Winthrop  Coit,  Episcopal  clergyman,  was  born  in  New  London, 
June  28,  1803,  and  died  in  Middletown  in  1885.  After  occupying  several 
important  rectorates  and  college  lectureships,  he  became  a  professor  in  the 
Divinity  School  at  Middletown.  He  made  many  contributions  to  church  lit- 
erature, and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  scholars  and  ablest  writers  of 
his  denomination. 

John  Lee  Comstock  (1789-1858),  born  in  Lyme,  was  an  industrious 
writer  of  text-books  on  the  natural  sciences,  and  a  skilled  draughtsman,  mak- 
ing most  of  the  illustrations  for  his  books.  His  "Mineralogy"  was  used  at  the 
West  Point  Military  Academy,  and  his  "Natural  Philosophy,"  which  was 
republished  in  London  and  Edinburgh,  had  a  sale  of  nearly  nine  thousand 
copies. 

Erastus  Corning  (1794-1872),  born  in  Norwich,  became  one  of  the  leading 
ironmasters  and  bankers  of  his  day.  His  master  work  was  in  the  development 
of  the  railroad  system  of  the  State  of  New  York  and  of  Hudson  river  trans- 
portation.   He  held  various  public  offices,  including  several  terms  in  Congress. 

John  Gardiner  Calkins  Brainard,  of  New  London  (1796-1828),  studied 
for  the  bar,  but  forsook  it  for  journalism.  He  wrote  much  verse  which 
brought  him  a  certain  celebrity.  His  brother,  Dr.  Dyar  Throop  Brainard,  a 
physician  (1810-1863),  was  a  chemist,  and  an  eminent  botanist. 

Mary  Lydia  (Bolles)  Branch,  her  husband  a  lawyer  in  New  York, 
beginning  in  1865  wrote  much  for  periodicals,  principally  stories  and  verse 
for  young  people. 

John  Newton  Brown  (1803-1868),  born  in  New  London,  Baptist  clergy- 
man, held  pastorates  in  Providence,  in  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire  and 
Virginia.  In  Boston  he  edited  the  "Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Knowledge," 
which  was  republished  in  England.  He  was  afterward  editor  of  the  "Chris- 
tian Chronicle"  and  the  "National  Baptist,"  and  was  editorial  secretary  of 
the  Baptist  Publication  Society. 

Asa  Burton  (1752-1836),  was  born  in  Stonington  and  passed  his  child- 
hood there  and  in  Preston.  He  became  a  Congregational  minister,  was  noted 
as  a  theological  teacher,  and  prepared  some  sixty  young  men  for  the  ministry. 
He  published  a  volume  on  "First  Principles  of  Metaphysics,  Ethics,  and 
Theology." 

George  Deshon,  born  in  New  London  (1823),  was  a  West  Point  graduate, 
a  room-mate  of  Gen.  U.  S.  Grant.  He  was  converted  to  Catholicism,  and 
resigned  from  the  army  to  enter  the  Order  of  Redemptorists,  and  was  one  of 
its  most  efficient  missioners. 

The  Daboll  family  of  Groton  was  remarkable  for  three  generations  of 
most  useful  men.  Nathan  Daboll  (1750-1818),  was  a  famous  teacher,  and 
instructed  as  many  as  fifteen  hundred  persons  in  navigation.  His  treatise 
on  arithmetic,  published  at  New  London  in  1799,  was  long  a  standard  text- 
book, as  was  also  his  "Practical  Navigator."    In  1773  he  began  the  publication 


96  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

of  the  "Connecticut  Almanac."  His  son  Nathan  (1782-1863)  was  a  State 
legislator;  he  aided  his  father  compiling  his  "Arithmetic,"  and  published  the 
"Almanac"  from  the  death  of  the  father  and  until  his  own.  His  son,  of  the 
same  name,  was  also  a  State  legislator,  aided  his  father  in  both  of  the  works 
before  named,  and  also  continued  the  "Almanac."  Celadon  Leeds  Daboll, 
another  son  of  the  second  Nathan,  was  an  inventor  and  was  father  of  the 
application  of  the  principle  of  the  clarionet  to  the  construction  of  the  fog- 
horn as  a  coast  signal.  This  device  was  perfected  by  his  brother,  Charles 
Miner  Daboll,  in  the  steam  fog-horn. 

James  Deane,  Indian  missionary  (1748-1823),  born  in  Groton,  during  the 
Revolutionary  War  was  an  Indian  interpreter  at  Fort  Stanwix,  and  later  was 
employed  by  Congress  to  pacify  the  northern  Indians.  He  wrote  an  essay 
on  Indian  mythology,  which  has  been  lost. 

Charles  Wheeler  Denison  (1809-1881),  born  in  New  London,  edited  a 
newspaper  there  before  he  was  of  age.  He  became  a  minister,  and  edited 
"The  Emancipator,"  the  first  anti-slavery  paper  published  in  New  York  City. 
He  was  a  potent  advocate  of  the  Union  during  the  Civil  War,  before  the 
cotton  operatives  in  England. 


r,  J  '■' 


:^\:i 


kt-r-r— ' 


rx^. 


.\ 


"Ml' 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON 

Its  Foiuiding — First  House  Lot  Ov/ncrs — The  Winthrops — Dealings  v/ith  the  Indians — 
During  the  Revolutionary  War — Development  of  Whaling — Some  Remarkable  Voy- 
ages— The  War  of  1812 — Steam  Navigation — Early  Newspapers — Mnnwaring  Hill. 

From  "The  Edelwiss,"  a  poem  by  John  G.  Bolles,  the  following  extract 
is  taken,  illustrative  of  the  river  Thames,  and  of  incidents  in  the  history  of 
New  London  and  vicinity: 

But  I  do  love  my  own  fair  Thames, 

E'er  fed  by  living  fountains 
And  noble  streams  of  Indian  name 

Upspringing  in  the  mountains. 

All  gliding  through  the  valleys  sweet 

To  that  delightful  river, 
By  airy  wing  of  zephyr  touched, 

I've  seen  its  waters  quiver, 
While  jauntily  upon  its  breast 
My  little  skiff  would  rock  and  rest ; 
And  I  have  seen  its  quiet  depths 

Reflecting  cloud  and  sky, 
And  gazed  along  its  winding  course 

Far  as  could  reach  the  eye, 
Where,  nestled  'mid  the  distant  hills, 

Its  cradled  waters  lie. 
I  ne'er  beheld  a  lovelier  scene. 
Or  skies  more  bright,  or  hills  more  green. 
Or  blissful  morning  more  serene. 
While  islands  in  the  distance  rest 
As  emeralds  on  the  water's  breast. 
The  traveler,  with  admiring  eyes. 
Exclaims,  "Can  this  be  Paradise?" 

There  towers  that  lofty  monument 

On  Groton's  tragic  height, 
To  mark  the  spot  where  martyrs  fell 

Undaunted  in  the  fight. 

There  Ledyard  sleeps,  and  many  a  score 

Of  heroes  each  renowned. 
Who  midst  the  battle's  wildest  roar 

Were  firm  and  foremost  found. 

Amid  the  storm  of  fire  they  sang 

"Columbia  sha'ii  be  free," 
And  every  whizzing  bullet  rang 

For  honor,  liberty. 
N.L.— 1-7 


gg  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Allyns  and  Edgecombs  left  their  plow 

To  win  immortal   fame, 
And  glory  sets  on  many  a  brow 

I  need  not  call  by  name. 

Let  Hempstead's  memory  be  bright 

Who  wrote  the  battle's  story. 
Wounded  and  bruised  and  down  the  steep 

Hurled  in  that  wagon  gory; 

And  left  for  dead  among  the  dead 

Till,  touched  by  gentle  hands. 
He  saw  his  wife  and  rose  again 

To  live  long  in  the  land. 

'Twas  there  Decatur  with  his  fleet 

Held  hostile  ships  at  bay. 
And  guarded  well  the  sacred  place 

Where  patriot  ashes  lay. 

The  town  of  New  London  is  at  once  the  oldest  and  the  smallest  in  area 
of  New  London  county.  Its  boundaries  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  city 
of  New  London,  namely:  On  the  north,  the  town  of  Waterford ;  on  the  east, 
the  town  of  Groton,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  estuary  of  the  Thames 
river,  forming  beautiful  New  London  harbor ;  on  the  south  by  Long  Island 
Sound  ;  on  the  west  by  Waterford. 

Its  founder,  John  Winthrop  the  younger,  was  the  son  of  the  John  Win- 
throp  who,  leading  the  second  Puritan  emigration  from  England,  became 
governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  The  son  John,  born  in  1606, 
spent  the  years  1622  to  1625  at  the  University  of  Dublin.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-one  (1627)  he  served  under  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  in  France,  was 
married  in  1631,  and  the  same  year  arrived  in  Massachusetts.  After  the 
death  of  his  first  wife  in  1634,  he  returned  to  England,  married  again  in 
1635,  ^^'^  returned  to  take  charge  of  the  settlement  at  Saybrook  in  1636; 
from  Massachusetts  he  obtained  a  grant  of  Fisher's  Island  in  1640,  confirmed 
by  Connecticut  in  1641,  and  later  by  New  York  in  1668.  In  1644,  shortly 
after  his  first  settlement  on  Fisher's  Island,  he  obtained  from  Connecticut  a 
grant  of  a  plantation  "at  or  near  Pequod."  This  grant  he  began  to  occupy 
in  1645. 

The  Natal  Day  of  New  London  is  thus  described  by  Miss  Caulkins: 

At  a  General  Court  held  at  Boston,  6th  of  May,  1646.  Whereas  Mr. 
John  Winthrop,  Jun.,  and  some  others,  have  by  allowance  of  this  Court 
begun  a  plantation  in  the  Pequot  country,  which  appertains  to  this  juris- 
diction, as  part  of  our  proportion  of  the  conquered  country,  and  whereas  this 
Court  is  informed  that  some  Indians  who  are  now  planted  upon  the  place, 
where  the  said  plantation  is  begun,  are  willing  to  remove  from  their  planting 
ground  for  the  more  qiiiet  and  convenient  place  appointed — it  is  therefore 
ordered  that  Mr.  John  Winthrop  may  appoint  unto  such  Indians  as  are 
willing  to  remove,  their  lands  on  the  other  side,  that  is,  on  the  east  side  of 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  99 

the  Great  River  of  the  Pequot  countr}-,  or  some  other  place  for  their  con- 
venient planting  and  subsistence,  which  may  be  to  the  good  liking  and 
satisfaction  of  the  said  Indians,  and  likewise  to  such  of  the  Pequot  Indians 
as  shall  desire  to  live  there,  submitting  themselves  to  the  English  govern- 
ment, &c. 

And  whereas  Mr.  Thomas  Peters  is  intended  to  inhabit  in  the  said 
plantation, — this  Court  doth  think  fit  to  join  him  to  assist  the  said  Mr. 
Winthrop,  for  the  better  carrying  on  the  work  of  said  plantation.  A  true 
copy,  &c. — (New  London  Records,  Book  VI.) 

The  elder  Winthrop  records  the  commencement  of  the  plantation  under 
date  of  June,  1646: 

A  plantation  was  this  year  begun  at  Pequod  river  by  Mr.  Winthrop, 
Jun.,  (and)  Mr.  Thomas  Peter,  a  minister,  (brother  to  Mr.  Peter,  of  Salem,) 
and  (at)  this  Court,  power  was  given  to  them  two  for  ordering  and  govern- 
ing the  plantation,  till  further  order,  although  it  was  uncertain  whether  it 
would  fall  within  our  jurisdiction  or  not,  because  they  of  Connecticut  chal- 
lenged it  by  virtue  of  a  patent  from  the  king,  which  was  never  showed  us. 
It  mattered  not  much  to  which  jurisdiction  it  did  belong,  seeing  the  con- 
federation made  all  as  one ;  but  it  was  of  great  concernment  to  have  it  planted, 
to  be  a  curb  to  the  Indians. 

The  uncertainty  with  respect  to  jurisdiction  hung  at  first  like  a  cloud 
over  the  plantation.  The  subject  was  discussed  at  the  meeting  of  the  com- 
missioners at  New  Haven  in  September,  1646.  Massachusetts  claimed  by 
conquest,  Connecticut  by  patent,  purchase  and  conquest.     The  record  says: 

It  was  remembered  that  in  a  treaty  betwixt  them  at  Cambridge,  in  1638, 
not  perfected,  a  proposition  was  made  that  Pequot  river,  in  reference  to  the 
conquest,  should  be  the  bounds  betwixt  them,  but  Mr.  Fenwick  was  not  then 
there  to  plead  the  patent,  neither  had  Connecticut  then  any  title  to  those 
lands  by  purchase  or  deed  of  gift  from  TJncas. 

The  decision  at  this  time  was,  that  unless  hereafter,  Massachusetts  should 
show  better  title,  the  jurisdiction  should  belong  to  Connecticut.  This  issue 
did  not  settle  the  controversy.  It  was  again  agitated  at  the  Commissioners' 
Court,  held  at  Boston,  in  July,  1647,  at  which  time  Mr.  Winthrop,  who  had 
been  supposed  to  favor  the  claims  of  Massachusetts,  expressed  himself  as 
"more  indifferent,"  but  afifirmed  that  some  members  of  the  plantation,  who 
had  settled  there  in  reference  to  the  government  of  Massachustts  and  in 
expectation  of  large  privileges  from  that  colony,  would  be  much  disappointed 
if  it  should  be  assigned  to  any  other  jurisdiction. 

The  majority  again  gave  their  voice  in  favor  of  Connecticut,  assigning 
this  reason — "Jurisdiction  goeth  constantly  with  the  Patent." 

Massachusetts  made  repeated  e.xceptions  to  this  decision.  The  argument 
was  in  truth  weak,  inasmuch  as  the  Warwick  Patent  seems  never  to  have 
been  transferred  to  Connecticut,  the  colony  being  for  many  years  without 
even  a  copy  of  that  instrument.  The  right  from  conquest  was  the  only  valid 
foundation  on  which  she  could  rest  her  claim,  and  here  her  position  was 
impregnable. 


loo  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Mr.  Peters  appears  to  have  been  from  the  first  associated  with  Winthrop 
in  the  projected  settlement,  having  a  co-ordinate  authority  and  manifesting 
an  equal  degree  of  zeal  and  energy  in  the  undertaking.  But  his  continuance 
in  the  country,  and  all  his  plans  in  regard  to  the  new  town,  were  cut  short 
by  a  summons  from  home  inviting  him  to  return  to  the  guidance  of  his 
ancient  flock  in  Cornwall.  He  left  Pequot,  never  to  see  it  again,  in  the 
autumn  of  1646.     In  November  he  was  in  Boston  preparing  to  embark. 

Mr.  Winthrop  removed  his  family  from  Boston  in  October,  1646;  his 
brother,  Deane  Winthrop,  accompanied  him.  They  came  by  sea,  encounter- 
ing a  violent  tempest  on  the  passage,  and  dwelt  during  the  first  winter  on 
Fisher's  Island.  Some  of  the  children  were  left  behind  in  Boston,  but  joined 
their  parents  the  next  summer,  at  which  time  Mr.  Winthrop,  having  built  a 
house,  removed  his  family  to  the  town  plot.  Mrs.  Lake  returned  to  the 
plantation  in  1647,  '^^^  '^'''s  regarded  as  an  inhabitant,  having  a  home  lot 
assigned  to  her  and  sharing  in  grants  and  divisions  of  land  as  other  settlers, 
though  she  was  not  a  householder.  She  resided  in  the  family  of  Winthrop 
until  after  he  was  chosen  governor  of  the  colony,  and  removed  to  Hartford. 
The  latt-er  part  of  her  life  was  spent  at  Ipswich. 

Governor  Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  regarded  the  new  plantation  with 
great  interest.  As  a  patriot,  a  statesman  and  a  father,  his  mind  expatiated 
upon  it  with  hope  and  solicitude.  A  few  days  after  the  departure  from 
Boston  of  his  son,  with  his  family,  he  wrote  to  him :  "The  blessing  of  the 
Lord  be  upon  you,  and  He  protect  and  guide  you  in  this  great  undertaking. 
I  commend  you  and  my  good  daughter,  and  your  children,  and 
Deane,  and  all  your  company  in  your  plantation  (whom  I  desire  to  salute,) 
to  the  gracious  protection  and  blessing  of  the  Lord." 

To  this  chapter  may  properly  be  added  the  relation  of  a  romantic  incident 
that  occurred  at  an  early  period  of  the  settlement,  and  which  had  an  important 
bearing  on  the  western  boundary  question  that  subsequently  threw  the  town 
into  a  belligerent  attitude  toward  Lyme. 

In  March,  1672,  when  the  controversy  in  respect  to  bounds  between  New 
London  and  Lyme  was  carried  before  the  legislature,  Mr.  Winthrop,  then 
governor  of  the  colony,  being  called  on  for  his  testimony,  gave  it  in  a  narra- 
tive form,  his  object  being  to  show  explicitly  that  the  little  stream  known 
as  Bride  Brook  was  originally  regarded  as  the  boundary  between  the  two 
plantations.    The  preamble  of  his  deposition  is  in  substance  as  follows: 

When  we  began  the  plantation  in  the  Pequot  country,  now  called  New 
London,  I  had  a  commission  from  the  Massachusetts  government,  and  the 
ordering  of  matters  was  left  to  myself.  Not  finding  meadow  sufficient  for 
even  a  small  plantation,  unless  the  meadows  and  marshes  west  of  Xahantic 
river  were  adjoined,  I  determined  that  the  bounds  of  the  plantation  should 
be  to  the  brook,  now  called  Bride  Brook,  which  was  looked  upon  as  certainly 
without  Saybrook  bounds.  This  was  an  encouragement  to  proceed  with  the 
plantation,  which  otherwise  could  not  have  gone  on,  there  being  no  suitable 
accommodation  near  the  place. 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  loi 

In  corroboration  of  this  fact,  and  to  show  that  the  people  of  Saybrook 
at  first  acquiesced  in  this  boundary  line,  the  governor  related  an  incident 
which  he  says  "fell  out  the  first  winter  of  our  settling  there."  This  must  have 
been  the  winter  of  1646-47,  which  was  the  first  spent  by  him  in  the  plantation. 
The  main  points  of  the  story  were  these: 

A  young  couple  in  Saybrook  were  to  be  married  ;  the  groom  was  Jonathan 
Rudd.  The  governor  does  not  give  the  name  of  the  bride,  and  unfortunately 
the  omission  is  not  supplied  by  either  record  or  tradition.  The  wedding  day 
was  fixed,  and  a  magistrate  from  one  of  the  upper  towns  on  the  river  was 
engaged  to  perform  the  rite ;  for  there  was  not.  it  seems,  any  person  in  Say- 
brook duly  qualified  to  officiate  on  such  an  occasion.  But,  "there  falling  out 
at  that  time  a  great  snow,"  the  paths  were  obliterated,  traveling  obstructed, 
and  intercourse  with  the  interior  interrupted ;  so  that  "the  magistrate  in- 
tended to  go  down  thither  was  hindered  by  the  depth  of  the  snow."  On  the 
seaboard  there  is  usually  a  less  weight  of  snow,  and  the  courses  can  be  more 
readily  ascertained.  The  nuptials  must  not  be  delayed  without  inevitable 
necessity.  Application  was  therefore  made  to  Mr.  Winthrop  to  come  to 
Saybrook  and  unite  the  parties.  But  he,  deriving  his  authority  from  Massa- 
chusetts, could  not  legally  officiate  in  Connecticut.  "I  saw  it  necessary  (he 
observes)  to  deny  them  in  that  way.  but  told  them  for  an  expedient  for  their 
accommodation,  if  they  come  to  the  plantation  it  might  be  done.  But  that 
being  too  difficult  for  them,  it  was  agreed  that  they  should  come  to  that  place, 
which  is  now  called  Bride  Brook,  as  being  a  place  within  the  bounds  of  that 
authority  whereby  I  then  acted ;  otherwise  I  had  exceeded  the  limits  of  my 
commission." 

This  proposition  was  accepted.  On  the  brink  of  this  little  stream,  the 
boundary  between  the  two  colonies,  the  parties  met  Winthrop  and  his  friends 
from  Pequot,  and  the  bridal  train  from  Saybrook.  Here  the  ceremony  was 
performed,  under  the  shelter  of  no  roof,  by  no  hospitable  fireside;  without  any 
accommodations  but  those  furnished  by  the  snow-covered  earth,  the  over- 
arching heaven,  and  perchance  the  sheltering  side  of  a  forest  of  pines  or 
cedars.  Romantic  lovers  have  sometimes  pledged  their  faith  by  joining 
hands  over  a  narrow  streamlet;  but  never,  perhaps,  before  or  since,  was  the 
legal  rite  performed  in  a  situation  so  wild  and  solitary  and  under  circum- 
stances so  interesting  and  peculiar. 

We  are  not  told  how  the  parties  traveled,  whether  on  horseback,  or  on 
sleds  or  snow-shoes ;  nor  what  cheer  they  brought  with  them,  whether  cakes 
or  fruit,  the  juice  of  the  orchard  or  vineyard,  or  the  fiery  extract  of  the  cane. 
We  only  know  that  at  that  time  conveniences  and  comforts  were  few,  and 
luxuries  unknown.  Yet  simple  and  homely  as  the  accompaniments  must  have 
been,  a  glow  of  hallowed  beauty  will  ever  rest  upon  the  scene.  We  fancy 
that  we  hear  the  foot  tramp  upon  the  crisp  snow ;  the  ice  crack  as  they 
cross  the  frozen  stream;  the  wind  sighs  through  the  leafless  forest;  and  the 
clear  voice  of  Winthrop  swells  upon  the  ear  like  a  devout  strain  of  music, 
now   low,  and  then  rising  high  to  heaven,  as  it  passes  through  the  varied 


I02  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

accents  of  tender  admonition,  legal  decision  and  solemn  prayer.  The  im- 
pressive group  stand  around,  wrapped  in  their  frosty  mantles,  with  heads 
reverently  bowed  down,  and  at  the  given  sign  the  two  plighted  hands  come 
forth  from  among  the  furs  and  are  clasped  together  in  token  of  a  lifelong, 
affectionate  trust.    The  scene  ends  in  a  general  burst  of  hearty  hilarity. 

Bride  Brook  issues  from  a  beautiful  sheet  of  water  known  as  Bride  Lake 
or  Pond,  and  runs  into  the  Sound  about  a  mile  west  of  Giant's  Cove.  In  a 
straight  line  it  is  not  more  than  two  miles  west  of  Niantic  Bay.  The  Indian 
name  of  the  pond,  or  brook,  or  of  both,  was  Sunk-i-paug,  or  Sunkipaug-suck. 

The  names  of  those  who  first  received  house  lots  in  the  new  settlement 
numbered  thirty-six:  John  Gager,  Cary  Latham,  Samuel  Lathrop,  John  Steb- 
bins,  Isaac  Willey,  Thomas  Miner,  William  Bordman,  William  Morton,  Wil- 
liam Nicholls,  Robert  Hemstead,  Thomas  Skidmore,  John  Lewis,  Richard 
Post,  Robert  Bedeel,  John  Robinson,  Deane  Winthrop,  William  Bartlett, 
Nathaniel  Watson,  John  Austin,  William  Forbes,  Edward  Higbie,  Jarvis 
Mudge,  Andrew  Longdon,  William  Hallett,  Giles  Smith,  Peter  Beesbran. 
James  Bemis,  John  Fossecar,  Consider  Wood,  George  Chappell.  Of  these 
grants  not  all  were  taken  up ;  apparently  Watson,  Austin,  Higbie,  Hallett, 
Smith,  Busbraw,  Fossecar,  and  Wood  did  not  settle  in  the  town.  Mudge  and 
Chappell  came  a  little  late,  as  did  Jonathan  Brewster,  Thomas  Wells,  Peter 
Blatchford,  Nathaniel  Masters,  all  by  1650.  The  location  of  the  lots  may  be 
found  in  Miss  Caulkins'  "History  of  New  London."  A  considerable  colony 
of  people  came  with  Rev.  Mr.  Blinman  from  Gloucester.  Other  settlers  came 
in  from  time  to  time,  and  by  the  end  of  1651  the  settlers  from  Cape  Ann 
had  received  house  lots.  The  original  town  plot  is  thus  described  by  Miss 
Caulkins : 

The  first  home  lots  were  laid  out  chiefly  at  the  two  extremities  of  the 
semicircular  projection  which  formed  the  site  of  the  town.  Between  these 
were  thick  swamps,  waving  woods,  ledges  of  rock,  and  ponds  of  water.  The 
oldest  communication  from  one  to  the  other  was  from  Mill  Brook  over  Post 
Hill,  so  called  from  Richard  Post,  whose  house  lot  was  on  this  hill,  through 
what  is  now  William  street  to  Manwaring's  Hill,  and  down  Blackball  street 
to  Truman  street  was  the  harbor's  north  road.  Main  street  was  opened,  and 
from  thence  a  cut  over  the  hill  westward  was  made  (now  Richards  and 
Granite  streets).  Bank  street  was  laid  out  on  the  very  brink  of  the  upland, 
above  the  sandj'  shore,  and  a  space  (now  Coit  street)  was  carried  around 
the  head  of  Beacon  Cove  to  Truman  street,  completing  the  circuit  of  the 
town  plot.  No  names  were  given  to  any  of  the  streets  for  at  least  a  century 
after  the  settlement,  save  that  Main  street  was  uniformly  called  the  Town 
street,  and  Bank  street  the  Bank.  Hempstead  street  was  one  of  the  first 
laid  out.  and  a  pathway  coincident  with  the  present  State  street  led  from  the 
end  of  the  Town  street  west  and  northwest  to  meet  it.  Such  appears  to 
have  been  the  original  plan  of  the  town.  The  cove  at  the  north  was  Mill 
Cove :  the  two  coves  at  the  south.  Bream  and  Close.  Water  street  was  the 
beach,  and  the  head  of  it  at  the  entrance  of  Mill  Cove,  now  Sandy  Point. 

In  1657  Mr.  Winthrop  removed  to  Hartford,  as  governor  of  the  Colony. 
The  patent  of  New  London  issued  by  Deputy  Governor  Robert  Treat 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  103 

gives  the  names  of  seventy-seven  men,  but  Miss  Caulkins  is  of  the  opinion 
that  at  that  time  (1704)  there  must  have  been  approximately  one  hundred 
and  sixty  full-grown  men  in  the  town. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  volume  to  enter  into  the  full  details  of  early 
history,  which  have  been  so  admirably  compiled  for  New  London  and  Nor- 
wich by  Miss  Caulkins.  We  print  such  selections  rather  to  give  a  general 
picture  of  this  period  of  county  history.  The  names  found  on  the  rate  lists, 
in  the  town  records,  and  in  various  public  places,  are  names  famous  in  the 
history  of  New  England,  and  indeed  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole.  The 
descendants  of  these  settlers  have  been  the  builders  of  America.  From  Hurd's 
"History  of  New  London  County"  we  print  the  will  of  Mary  Harris,  "one 
of  the  oldest  wills  extant  in  the  county": 

The  last  Will  and  Testament  of  Mary  Harries,  taken  from  her  owne 
mouth  this  19th  of  Jan.,  1655. 

I  give  to  my  eldest  daughter,  Sarah  Lane,  the  bigest  brass  pan,  and  to 
her  daughter  Mary,  a  silver  spoone.  And  to  her  daughter  Sarah,  the  bigest 
pewter  dish  and  one  silken  riben.  Likewise  I  give  to  her  daughter  Mary,  a 
pewter  candlesticke. 

I  give  to  my  daughter,  Mary  Lawrence,  my  blew  mohere  peticote  and 
my  straw  hatt  and  a  fether  boulster.  And  to  her  eldest  Sonne  I  give  a  silver 
spoone.  To  her  second  sonne  a  silver  whissle.  I  give  more  to  my  daughter 
Mary,  my  next  brasst  pann  and  a  thrum  cushion.  And  to  her  youngest  sonne 
I  give  a  pewter  bassen. 

I  give  to  my  youngest  daughter,  Elizabeth  Weekes,  a  peece  of  red  broad 
cloth,  being  about  two  yards,  alsoe  a  damask  livery  cloth,  a  gold  ring,  a  silver 
spoone,  a  fether  bed  and  a  boulster.  Alsoe,  I  give  to  my  daughter,  Elizabeth, 
my  best  hatt,  my  gowne,  a  brass  kettle,  and  a  woolen  jacket  for  her  husband. 
Alsoe,  I  give  to  my  daughter  Elizabeth,  thirty  shillings,  alsoe  a  red  whittle, 
a  white  apron,  and  a  new  white  neck-cloth.  Alsoe,  I  give  to  my  three  daugh- 
ters aforesaid,  a  quarter  part  to  each  of  them,  of  the  dyaper  table-cloth  and 
tenn  shillings  apeece. 

I  give  to  my  sister  Migges,  a  red  peticoat,  a  cloth  jacket,  a  silke  hud,  a 
quoife,  a  cross-cloth,  and  a  neck-cloth. 

I  give  to  my  cosen  Calib  Rawlyns  ten  shillinges. 

I  give  to  my  two  cosens,  Mary  and  Elizabeth  ffry,  each  of  them  five 
shillings. 

I  give  to  Mary  Barnet  a  red  stuff  wascote. 

I  give  to  my  daughter,  Elizabeth,  my  great  chest.  To  my  daughter, 
Mary,  a  ciffer  and  a  white  neck-cloth.  To  my  sister,  Hannah  Rawlin,  my 
best  cross-cloth.  To  my  brother,  Rawlin,  a  lased  band.  To  my  two  kins- 
women. Elizabeth  Hubbard  and  Mary  Steevens,  five  shillinges  apeece. 

I  give  to  my  brother,  Migges,  his  three  youngest  children,  two  shillinges 
sixe  pence  apeece. 

I  give  to  my  sonne  Thomas,  ten  shillinges,  if  he  doe  come  home  or  be 
alive. 

I  give  to  Rebekah  Bruen,  a  pynt  pott  of  pewter,  a  new  petticoate,  and 
wascote  wch  she  is  to  spin  herselfe ;  alsoe  an  old  byble,  and  a  hatt  wch  was 
my  sonn  Thomas  his  hatt. 

I  give  to  my  sonne  Gabriell,  my  house,  land,  cattle,  and  swine,  with  all 
other  goodes  reall  and  psonall  in  Pequet  or  any  other  place,  and  doe  make 


I04  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

him  my  sole  executor  to  this  my  will.    Witness  my  hand, 

The  mark  X  of  Mary  Harries. 
Witness  hearunto :  John  Winthrop,  Obadiah  Bruen,  Willni  NyccoUs. 

An  account  of  the  estate  left  by  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  will  show  how  wide 
were  the  interests  of  these  earl}'  settlers : 

John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  the  patron  and  founder  of  New  London,  and  gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut  for  nearly  eighteen  years,  died  in  Boston,  April  5th,  1676. 
He  had  been  called  to  Boston  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  to 
which  he  was  the  delegate  from  Connecticut.  His  remains  were  deposited 
in  the  tomb  of  his  father,  in  the  cemetery  of  King's  Chapel,  where  afterward 
his  two  sons  were  gathered  to  his  side.  His  wife,  who  deceased  not  long 
before  him,  is  supposed  to  have  been  buried  in  Hartford. 

Governor  Winthrop's  family  consisted  of  the  two  sons  so  often  men- 
tioned, Fitz-John  and  Wait-Still,  and  five  daughters.  The  sons  were  residents 
in  New  London  at  the  time  of  their  father's  decease.  Wait-Still  succeeded 
his  brother  as  major  of  the  county  regiment,  but  at  a  period  ten  or  twelve 
years  later,  removed  to  Boston.  Lucy,  the  second  daughter,  the  wife  of 
Edward  Palmes,  belongs  to  New  London;  but  her  death  is  not  on  record, 
neither  is  there  any  stone  to  her  memory  in  the  old  burial-ground,  by  the  side 
of  her  husband.  It  is  therefore  probable  that  she  died  abroad,  and  from 
other  circumstances  it  is  inferred  that  this  event  took  place  in  Boston,  after 
the  death  of  her  father,  in  1676.  She  left  a  daughter  Lucy,  who  was  her  only 
child,  and  this  daughter,  though  twice  married,  left  no  issue.  Her  line  is 
therefore  extinct. 

The  very  extensive  landed  estate  of  Governor  Winthrop,  which  fell  to 
his  two  sons,  was  possessed  by  them  conjointly,  and  undivided  during  their 
lives.  Fitz-John,  having  no  sons,  it  was  understood  between  the  brothers 
that  the  principal  part  of  the  land  grants  should  be  kept  in  the  name,  and 
to  this  end  be  reserved  for  John,  the  only  son  of  Wait  Winthrop.  These 
possessions,  briefly  enumerated,  were  Winthrop's  Neck,  200  acres;  Mill-pond 
farm,  300;  land  north  of  the  town  of  Alewife  Brook  and  in  its  vicinity.  1,500; 
land  at  Pequonuck  (Groton),  6,000;  Little-cove  farm,  half  a  mile  square,  on 
the  east  side  of  the  river — these  were  within  the  bounds  of  New  London. 
On  Mystic  river,  five  or  six  hundred  acres ;  at  Lanthorn  Hill  and  its  vicinity, 
3,000;  and  on  the  coast,  Fisher's  Island  and  its  Hommocks,  and  Goat  Island. 
Governor  Winthrop  had  also  an  undisputed  title  from  court  grants  to  large 
tracts  in  Voluntown,  Plainfield,  Canterbury,  Woodstock  and  Saybrook, 
amounting  to  ten  or  twelve  thousand  acres.  He  also  claimed  the  whole  of 
what  was  called  Black-lead-mine  Hill  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
computed  to  be  ten  miles  in  circumference.  Magnificent  as  was  this  estate 
in  point  of  extent,  the  value,  in  regard  to  present  income,  was  moderate.  By 
the  provision  of  his  will,  his  daughters  were  to  have  half  as  much  estate  as 
his  sons,  and  he  mentions  that  Lucy  and  Elizabeth  had  already  been  por- 
tioned with  farms.  The  above  sketch  of  his  landed  property  comprises  only 
that  which  remained  inviolate  as  it  passed  through  the  hands  of  his  sons,  and 
his  grandson  John,  the  son  of  Wait,  and  was  bequeathed  by  the  latter  to  his 
son,  John,  John  Still  Winthrop,  in  1747. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  relations  of  Uncas  and  the  early 
settlers  of  the  county.  After  the  destruction  of  the  Pequot  power,  the  few 
survivors  of  the  tribe,  having  been  distributed  amongst   the  Narragansetts 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  105 

and  the  Mohep:ans,  were  settled,  some  in  what  is  now  Westerly,  some  in 
what  is  now  Waterford  and  New  London,  under  the  name  "Nameaugs." 
These  remnants  of  a  once  powerful  tribe  suffered  under  the  severe  treatment 
meted  out  to  them  by  Uncas,  who  disliked  Governor  Winthrop  for  his  pro- 
tection of  the  "Nameaugs." 

The  jealousy  of  Uncas  precipitated  several  conflicts  with  the  settlers  at 
New  London.  When  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  (noteworthy 
as  a  step  toward  the  Albany  Congress  and  toward  later  confederation)  were 
asked  by  Governor  Winthrop  to  free  the  Pequots  from  the  control  of  Uncas, 
they  refused  to  do  so,  but  reprimanded  and  fined  Uncas  for  misdeeds. 

Until  the  settlement  of  Norwich,  Uncas  led  an  unsettled  life,  evading  the 
attacks  of  his  Indian  foes  and  disputing  with  his  white  neighbors  regarding 
his  rights.  The  commissioners,  after  many  attempts  at  settling  Indian  affairs, 
made  certain  awards  of  lands  to  the  surviving  Pequots,  which  awards  were 
never  carried  out  by  the  towns  concerned.  After  the  charter  of  1662,  whereby 
Stonington  became  a  part  of  Connecticut,  the  settlement  of  Indian  affairs 
became  subject  to  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut.  The  records  of  the 
General  Court  show  a  long  list  of  petitions  and  awards  pertaining  to  the 
Indian  affairs  of  New  London  county,  extending  over  a  period  from  1662 
to  Revolutionary  times.  The  early  history  of  Groton  and  Stonington  shows 
that  the  Pequots  were  provided  with  reservations  and  treated  as  wards  of 
the  State. 

The  Mohegans,  for  their  fidelity  at  all  times,  were  more  generously 
treated  by  the  State,  admitted  to  full  citizenship  finally  (1873),  and  granted 
absolute  ownership  of  certain  lands,  much  of  the  rest  of  the  tribal  domain 
being  sold  from  time  to  time  to  settlers  of  New  London,  Norwich,  and  adjoin- 
ing towns. 

Of  the  primitive  life  of  the  settlers  we  get  many  glimpses,  by  the  votes 
of  town  meetings,  wills,  and  diaries.  We  find  in  the  town  records  the  follow- 
ing entry : 

Memorandum:  that  upon  the  i6th  day  of  January,  1709-10,  being  a  very 
cold  day,  upon  the  report  of  a  kennel  of  wolves,  mortal  enemies  to  our  sheep 
and  all  our  other  creatures,  was  lodged  and  lay  in  ambuscade  in  the  Cedar 
Swamp,  waiting  there  for  an  opportunity  to  devour  the  harmless  sheep; 
upon  information  whereof,  about  thirty  of  our  valiant  men,  well  disciplined 
in  arms  and  special  conduct,  assembled  themselves  and  with  great  courage 
beset  and  surrounded  the  enemies  in  the  said  swamp,  and  shot  down  three 
of  the  brutish  enemies,  and  brought  their  heads  through  the  town  in  great 
triumph. 

The  same  day  a  wolfe  in  sheepe's  cloathing  designed  to  throw  an  innocent 
man  into  the  frozen  water,  where  he  might  have  perished,  but  was  timely 
prevented,  and  the  person  at  that  time  delivered  frome  that  danger. 

As  the  subject  of  wolves  is  thus  again  introduced,  we  may  observe  that 
at  this  period  and  for  thirty  years  afterward  a  wolf-hunt  was  a  customary 
autumnal  sport.  From  ten  to  forty  persons  usually  engaged  in  it,  who  sur- 
rounded and  beat  up  some  swamp  in  the  neighborhood.     Mill-pond  Swamp 


io6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

and  Cedar  Swamp  were  frequently  scoured  for  wolves  in  Xovember  or  the 
latter  part  of  October.  George,  son  of  John  Richards,  had  a  bounty  of  in 
for  wolves  killed  during  the  year  1717;  these  were  probably  insnared.  The 
bounty  had  been  raised  to  twenty  shillings  per  head.  The  bounty  for  killing 
a  wildcat  was  three  shillings. 

The  settlement  at  New  London  prospered,  till  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  it  numbered  approximately  6.000.  New  London's  part 
in  that  struggle  has  been  fully  set  forth  elsewhere.  The  Shaw  Mansion,  the 
Nathan  Hale  School,  Fort  Trumbull,  the  many  anecdotes  of  local  happenings, 
are  rich  in  historic  interest.    Miss  Caulkins  remarks: 

So  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  London  had  been  trained  as  fisher- 
men, coasters,  and  mariners,  that  no  one  is  surprised  to  find  them,  when  the 
trj'ing  time  came,  bold,  hardy,  and  daring  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  In  all 
the  southern  towns  of  the  county — Stonington,  Groton,  New  London,  Lyme — 
the  common  mass  of  the  people  were  an  adventurous  class,  and  exploits  of 
stratagem,  strength,  and  valor,  by  land  and  sea,  performed  during  the  war 
of  independence  by  persons  nurtured  on  this  coast,  might  still  be  recovered 
sufficient  to  form  a  volume  of  picturesque  adventure  and  exciting  interest. 
At  the  same  time  many  individuals  in  this  part  of  the  country,  and  some,  too, 
of  high  respectability,  took  a  different  view  of  the  great  political  question  and 
sided  with  the  Parliament  and  the  king.  In  various  instances  families  were 
divided ;  members  of  the  same  fireside  adopted  opposite  opinions  and  became 
as  strangers  to  each  other ;  nor  was  it  an  unknown  misery  for  parents  to 
have  children  ranged  on  different  sides  of  the  battle-field.  At  one  time  a 
gallant  young  officer  of  the  army,  on  his  return  from  the  camp,  where  he 
had  signalized  himself  b}-  his  bravery,  was  escorted  to  his  home  by  a  grateful 
populace  that  surrounded  the  house  and  filled  the  air  with  their  applausive 
hiizzas.  while  at  the  sam.e  time  his  half-brother,  the  son  of  the  mother  who 
clasped  him  to  her  bosom,  stigmatized  as  a  Tory,  convicted  of  trade  with  the 
enemy,  and  threatened  with  the  wooden  horse,  lay  concealed  amid  the  hay 
of  the  barn,  where  he  was  fed  by  stealth  for  many  days. 

This  anecdote  is  but  an  example  of  many  that  might  be  told  of  a  similar 
character. 

The  position  of  New  London  was  such  that  it  was  easily  blockaded,  and 
constantly  threatened  with  destruction.  Many  fleets  of  hostile  ships  sailed  by. 
Many  a  privateer  slipped  out  of  the  harbor  in  spite  of  the  blockade.  "So 
great,  however,  was  the  vigilance  of  the  British  squadron  on  the  coast  that 
not  a  single  prize  was  brought  into  the  harbor  of  New  London  from  1776 
to  1778."    Of  the  famous  attack  of  Arnold  on  the  town,  Miss  Caulkins  says: 

Although  New  London  had  been  repeatedly  threatened,  no  direct  attack 
was  made  upon  the  town  till  near  the  close  of  the  war  in  1781.  General 
Arnold,  on  his  return  from  a  predatory  descent  upon  the  coasts  of  Virginia, 
was  ordered  to  conduct  a  similar  expedition  against  his  native  State.  A  large 
quantity  of  \\'est  India  goods  and  European  merchandise  brought  in  by 
various  privateers  was  at  this  time  collected  in  New  London;  the  quantity 
of  shipping  in  port  was  also  very  considerable,  and  among  the  prizes  recently 
taken  was  the  "Hannah"  (Captain  Watson),  a  rich  merchant  ship  from  Lon- 
don bound  to  New  York,  which  had  been  captured  a  little  south  of  Long 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  107 

Island  by  Capt.  Dudley  Saltonstall,  of  the  "Minerva,"  privateer.  The  loss 
of  this  ship,  whose  cargo  was  said  to  be  the  most  valuable  brought  into 
America  during-  the  war,  had  exasperated  the  British,  and  more  than  any  other 
single  circumstance  is  thought  to  have  led  to  the  expedition.  At  no  other 
period  of  the  war  could  they  have  done  so  much  mischief,  at  no  other  had 
the  inhabitants  so  much  to  lose. 

The  expedition  was  fitted  out  from  New  York,  the  headquarters  of  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  and  the  British  army.  The  plan  was  well  conceived.  Arnold 
designed  to  enter  the  harbor  secretly  in  the  night,  and  to  destroy  the  shipping, 
public  offices,  stores,  merchandise,  and  the  fortifications  on  both  sides  of 
the  river,  with  such  expedition  as  to  be  able  to  depart  before  any  considerable 
force  could  be  collected  against  him.  Candor  in  judging  forbids  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  burning  of  the  town  and  the  massacre  at  Groton  fort  entered 
into  his  original  design,  though  at  the  time  such  cruelty  of  purpose  was 
charged  upon  him  and  currently  believed.  As  flowing  from  his  measures  and 
taking  place  under  his  command,  they  stand  to  his  account,  and  this  responsi- 
bility is  heavy  enough  without  adding  to  it  the  criminal  forethought. 

The  official  report  by  Arnold  reads  as  follows : 

Sound,  oflf  Plumb  Island,  8th  Sept.,  1781. 

Sir,- — I  have  the  honor  to  inform  your  Excellency  that  the  transports 
with  the  detachment  of  troops  under  my  orders  anchored  on  the  Long  Island 
shore  on  the  5th  instant,  at  two  o'clock  P.  M.,  about  ten  leagues  from  New 
London,  and  having  made  some  necessary  arrangements,  weighed  anchor  at 
seven  o'clock  P.  M.  and  stood  for  New  London  with  a  fair  wind.  At  one 
o'clock  the  next  morning  we  arrived  ofif  the  harbor,  when  the  wind  suddenly 
shifted  to  the  northward,  and  it  was  nine  o'clock  before  the  transports  could 
beat  in.  At  ten  o'clock  the  troops  in  two  divisions,  and  in  four  debarkations, 
were  landed,  one  on  each  side  of  the  harbor,  about  three  miles  from  New 
London,  that  on  the  Groton  side,  consisting  of  the  Fortieth  and  Fifty-fourth 
Regiments  and  the  Third  Battery  of  New  Jersey  volunteers,  with  a  detach- 
ment of  yagers  and  artillery,  were  under  the  command  of  Lieut. -Col.  Eyre. 
The  division  on  the  New  London  side  consisted  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Regi- 
ment, the  Loyal  Americans,  the  American  Legion,  refugees,  and  a  detach- 
ment of  sixt}'  yagers,  who  were  immediately  on  their  landing  put  in  motion, 
and  at  eleven  o'clock,  being  within  half  a  mile  of  Fort  Trumbull,  which 
commands  New  London  Harbor,  I  detached  Capt.  Millett,  with  four  com- 
panies of  the  Thirty-eighth  Regiment,  to  attack  the  fort,  who  was  joined  on 
his  march  by  Capt.  Frink  with  one  company  of  the  American  Legion.  At 
the  same  time  I  advanced  with  the  remainder  of  the  division  west  of  Fort 
Trumbull,  on  the  road  to  the  town,  to  attack  a  redoubt  which  had  kept  up  a 
brisk  fire  upon  us  for  some  time,  but  which  the  enemy  evacuated  on  our 
approach.  In  this  work  we  found  six  pieces  of  cannon  mounted  and  two 
dismounted.  Soon  after  I  had  the  pleasure  to  see  Capt.  Millett  march  into 
Fort  Trumbull,  under  a  shower  of  grape-shot  from  a  number  of  cannon  which 
the  enemy  had  turned  upon  him ;  and  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  your 
Excellency  that  by  the  sudden  attack  and  determined  bravery  of  the  troops 
the  fort  was  carried  with  the  loss  of  only  four  or  five  men  killed  and  wounded. 
Capt.  Millett  had  orders  to  leave  one  company  in  Fort  Trumbull,  to  detach 
one  to  the  redoubt  we  had  taken,  and  join  me  with  the  other  companies. 
No  time  was  lost  on  my  part  in  gaining  the  town  of  New  London.  We 
were  opposed  by  a  small  body  of  the  enemy,  with  one  field-piece,  who  were 
so  hard  pressed  that  they  were  obliged  to  leave  the  piece,  which,  being  iron, 
was  spiked  and  left. 


io8  XEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

As  soon  as  the  enemy  were  alarmed  in  the  morning  we  could  perceive 
they  were  busily  engaged  in  bending  sails  and  endeavoring  to  get  their  pri- 
vateers and  other  ships  up  Norwich  River  out  of  our  reach,  but  the  wind 
being  small  and  the  tide  against  them  they  were  obliged  to  anchor  again. 
From  information  I  received  before  and  after  my  landing,  I  had  reason  to 
believe  that  Fort  Griswold,  on  Groton  side,  was  very  incomplete,  and  I  was 
assured  by  friends  to  government,  after  my  landing,  that  there  were  only 
twenty  or  thirty  men  in  the  fort,  the  inhabitants  in  general  being  on  board 
their  ships  and  busy  in  saving  their  property. 

On  taking  possession  of  Fort  Trumbull,  I  found  the  enemy's  ships  would 
escape  unless  we  could  possess  ourselves  of  Fort  Griswold.  I  therefore  dis- 
patched an  officer  to  Lieut.-Col.  Eyre  with  the  intelligence  I  had  received, 
and  requested  him  to  make  an  attack  upon  the  fort  as  soon  as  possible,  at 
which  time  I  expected  the  howitzer  was  up  and  would  have  been  made  use  of. 
On  my  gaining  a  height  of  ground  in  the  rear  of  New  London,  from  which  I 
had  a  good  prospect  of  Fort  Griswold.  I  found  it  much  more  formidable  than 
I  expected,  or  than  I  had  formed  an  idea  of,  from  the  information  I  had  before 
received.  I  observed  at  the  same  time  that  the  men  who  had  escaped  from 
Fort  Trumbull  had  crossed  in  boats  and  thrown  themselves  into  Fort  Gris- 
wold, and  a  favorable  wind  springing  up  about  this  time,  the  enemy's  ships 
were  escaping  up  the  river,  notwithstanding  the  fire  from  Fort  Trumbull  and 
a  six-pounder  which  I  had  with  me.  I  immediately  dispatched  a  boat  with 
an  officer  to  Lieut.-Col.  Eyre  to  countermand  my  first  order  to  attack  the  fort, 
but  the  officer  arrived  a  few  minutes  too  late.  Lieut.-Col.  Eyre  had  sent  Capt. 
Beckwith  with  a  flag  to  demand  a  surrender  of  the  fort,  which  was  per- 
emptorily refused,  and  the  attack  had  commenced.  After  a  most  obstinate 
defense  of  near  fortv  minutes,  the  fort  was  carried  by  the  superior  bravery 
and  perseverance  of  the  assailants.  On  this  occasion  I  have  to  regret  the  loss 
of  Maj.  Montgomery,  who  was  killed  by  a  spear  in  entering  the  enemy's 
works ;  also  of  Ensign  Whitlock,  of  the  Fortieth  Regiment,  who  was  killed 
in  the  attack.  Three  other  officers  of  the  same  regiment  were  wounded. 
Lieut.-Col.  Eyre,  and  three  other  officers  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Regiment,  were 
also  wounded,  but  I  have  the  satisfaction  to  inform  your  Excellency  that  they 
are  all  in  a  fair  way  to  recover. 

Lieut.-Col.  Eyre,  who  behaved  with  great  gallantry,  having  received  his 
wound  near  the  works,  and  Maj.  Montgomery  being  killed  immediately  after, 
the  command  devolved  on  Maj.  Bromfield,  whose  behavior  on  this  occasion 
does  him  great  honor.  Lieut.-Col  Buskirk,  with  the  New  Jersey  volunteers 
and  artillery,  being  the  second  debarkation,  came  up  soon  after  the  work  was 
carried,  having  been  retarded  by  the  roughness  of  the  country.  I  am  much 
obliged  to  this  gentleman  for  his  exertions,  although  the  artillery  did  not 
arrive  in  time. 

I  have  enclosed  a  return  of  the  killed  and  wounded,  by  which  your  Ex- 
cellency will  observe  that  our  loss,  though  very  considerable,  is  short  of  the 
enemy's,  who  lost  most  of  their  officers,  among  whom  was  their  commander, 
Col.  Ledyard.  Eighty-five  men  were  found  dead  in  Fort  Griswold  and  sixty 
wounded,  most  of  them  mortally;  their  loss  on  the  opposite  side  must  have 
been  considerable,  but  cannot  be  ascertained.  I  believe  we  have  about  seventy 
prisoners,  besides  the  wounded  who  were  left  paroled. 

Ten  or  twelve  ships  were  burned,  among  them  three  or  four  armed  vessels, 
and  one  loaded  with  naval  stores;  an  immense  quantity  of  European  and 
West  India  eoods  were  found  in  the  stores,  among  the  former  cargo  of  the 
"Hannah,"   Capt.  Watson,  from  London,  lately  captured  by  the  enemy,  the 


HISTORICAL  SOCIKTY 
VOCATIONAL  SCHOOL 


MUNICIPAL   BI'ILDINO 


CITY  COURT  HOUSE    (17SJ) 
rUBLIC    LIBRARY 


CITY  OF  XEW  LOXDOX  109 

whole  of  which  was  burnt  with  the  stores,  which  proved  to  contain  a  large 
quantity  of  powder  unknown  to  us.  The  explosion  of  the  powder  and  change 
of  wind,  soon  after  the  stores  were  fired,  communicated  the  flames  to  part 
of  the  town,  which  was,  notwithstanding  every  effort  to  prevent  it,  unfor- 
tunately destroyed. 

After  the  Revolution,  New  London  developed  its  fisheries  and  commerce 
and  became  a  famous  whaling  center.  With  its  shipbuilding  and  coasting 
trade.  New  London  became  a  center  of  trade  for  merchants  further  inland. 
Trade  with  the  West  Indies  sprang  up  and  flourished.  One  hundred  and 
fifty  sail  of  merchant  vessels  entered  and  cleared  at  the  port  of  New  London. 
The  first  collector  of  the  port  was  Gen.  Jedediah  Huntington,  of  Revolu- 
tionary fame.  The  war  of  1812  greatly  interfered  with  this  commerce,  but 
at  the  close  of  the  war  commerce  again  revived.  In  1816  was  made  the  first 
trip  from  New  York  to  New  London  by  steam.  The  time,  twenty-one  hours, 
was  considered  remarkable.  Two  natives  of  New  London,  Capt.  Moses 
Rogers  and  Capt.  Stevens  Rogers,  were  the  first  to  navigate  a  steam  vessel 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  "Savannah"  made  the  trip  to  Liverpool  in  twenty- 
one  days,  starting  May  26,  1819. 

To  Miss  Caulkios'  History  we  are  indebted  for  an  outline  of  the  whaling 
industry: 

In  tracing  the  whale  fishery,  so  far  as  it  has  been  prosecuted  by  the 
people  of  Connecticut,  back  to  its  rise,  we  come  to  the  following  resolve  of 
the  General  Court  at  Hartford,  May  25th,  1647:  "If  Mr.  Whiting  with  others 
shall  make  trial  and  prosecute  a  design  for  the  taking  of  whale,  within  these 
liberties,  and  if  upon  trial  within  the  term  of  two  years,  they  shall  like  to  go 
on,  no  others  shall  be  suffered  to  interrupt  them  for  the  term  of  seven  years." 

The  granting  of  monopolies  and  exclusive  privileges  was  the  customary 
mode  of  encouraging  trade  and  manufactures  in  that  day.  Of  Mr.  Whiting's 
project  nothing  further  is  known.  Whales  in  the  early  years  of  the  colony 
were  often  seen  in  the  Sound ;  and  if  one  chanced  to  be  stranded  on  the 
shore,  or  to  get  embayed  in  a  creek,  the  news  was  soon  spread,  and  the  fisher- 
men and  farmers  from  the  nearest  settlements  would  turn  out,  armed  with 
such  implements  as  they  possessd,  guns,  pikes,  pitchforks,  or  spears,  and  rush 
to  the  encounter.  Such  adventures,  however,  belong  more  particularly  to 
the  south  side  of  Long  Island  than  to  the  Connecticut  shore. 

A  whale  boat  is  mentioned  in  an  enumeration  of  goods  before  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  this  implies  that  excursions  were  sometimes 
made  in  pursuit  of  whales,  but  probably  they  were  not  extended  much  beyond 
Montauk.  Even  at  the  present  day  a  whale  sometimes  makes  its  appearance 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Sound. 

We  have  no  statistics  to  show  that  the  whale  fishery  was  on  except  in 
this  small  way,  from  any  part  of  the  Connecticut  coast,  before  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  At  Sag  Harbor,  on  the  opposite  coast  of  the  Sound,  something 
more  had  been  done.  It  is  said  that  as  far  back  as  1760,  sloops  from  that  place 
went  to  Disco  Island  in  pursuit  of  whales ;  but  of  these  voyages  no  record  has 
been  preserved.  The  progress  of  whaling  from  the  American  coast  appears 
to  have  been  pursued  in  the  following  order: 

1st.  Whales  were  killed  on  or  near  the  coast,  and  in  all  instances  cut  up 
and  dried  upon  land.     Boats  onlv  used. 


no  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

2nd.  Small  sloops  were  fitted  out  for  a  cruise  of  five  or  six  weeks,  and 
went  as  far  as  the  Great  Banks  of  Newfoundland. 

3rd.  Longer  voyages  of  a  few  months  were  made  to  the  Western  Islands, 
Cape  Verde,  West  Indies  and  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

4th.  After  1745,  voyages  were  made  to  Davis'  Straits,  Baffin's  Bay,  and 
as  far  south  as  the  coast  of  Guinea. 

5th.  After  1770,  voyages  were  made  to  the  Brazil  Banks,  and  before  1775 
vessels  both  from  Nantucket  and  Newport  had  been  to  the  Falkland  Islands. 
Nantucket  alone  had  at  that  time  150  vessels  and  2,000  men  employed  in  the 
whaling  business.    Some  of  the  vessels  were  brigs  of  considerable  burden. 

The  war  totally  destroyed  the  whale  fishery,  and  the  depression  of  busi- 
ness after  the  war  prevented  it  from  being  immediately  resumed.  In  Nan- 
tucket it  revived  in  1785,  under  legislative  encouragement.  This  brings  us 
to  the  period  when  the  first  whaling  expedition  into  south  latitude  was  fitted 
out  from  Long  Island  Sound. 

In  the  year  1784  we  find  the  following  notice  in  the  "New  London 
Gazette":  "May  20.  Sailed  from  this  port,  sloop  'Rising  Sun,'  Squire,  on  a 
whaling  voyage."  Of  this  voyage  there  is  no  further  record ;  it  was  probably 
of  the  short  description.  At  Sag  Harbor  a  more  extended  expedition  was 
undertaken  the  same  year.  Nathaniel  Gardiner  and  brother  fitted  out  both 
a  ship  and  a  brig  on  a  whaling  adventure.  They  were  both  unsuccessful,  but 
this  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  expedition  after  whales  from  Long 
Island  Sound  into  south  latitudes.  In  1785,  Messrs.  Stephen  Howell  and 
Benjamin  Hunting,  of  Sag  Harbor,  purchased  the  brig  "Lucy,"  of  Elijah 
Hubbard,  of  IMiddletown,  Connecticut,  and  sent  her  out  on  a  whaling  voyage, 
George  McKay,  master.  The  same  season  the  brig  "America,"  Daniel 
Havens,  master,  was  fitted  out  from  the  same  place.  Both  went  to  the  Brazil 
Banks. 

1785. — The  "Lucy"  returned  May  i.Sth,  with  360  barrels.  The  "America" 
returned  June  4th,  with  300  barrels.  These  arrivals  were  announced  in  the 
"New  London  Gazette,"  in  the  marine  list  kept  by  Thomas  Allen,  who  there- 
upon breaks  forth:  "Now,  my  horse  jocke>s,  beat  your  horses  and  cattle  into 
spears,  lances,  harpoons  and  whaling  gear,  and  let  us  all  strike  out;  many 
spouts  ahead !    Whales  plenty,  you  have  them  for  the  catching." 

The  first  vessel  sailing  from  New  London  on  a  whaling  voyage  to  ji 
southern  latitude  was  the  ship  "Commerce,"  which  was  owned  and  fitted  out 
at  East  Haddam,  in  Connecticut  river,  but  cleared  from  New  London  Feb- 
ruary 6th,  1794.  An  attempt  was  made  to  form  a  whaling  company  in  New 
London  in  1795,  and  a  meeting  called  at  Miner's  tavern  for  that  purpose, 
but  it  led  to  no  result.  Norwich  next  came  forward,  and  sent  out  on  a  whaling 
voyage  a  small  new  ship  built  in  the  Thames  river,  below  Norwich,  and 
called  the  "Miantinomoh."  She  sailed  from  New  London  September  5th,  1800 
(Captain  Swain),  and  passing  round  Cape  Horn,  was  reported  at  Massafuero 
August  9th,  1801.  She  spent  another  year  on  the  South  American  coast,  but 
in  April,  1802,  was  seized  at  Valparaiso  by  the  Spanish  authorities  and  con- 
demned, the  ship  "Tryal,"  Coffin,  of  Nantucket,  sharing  the  same  fate. 

In  1802,  the  ship  "Despatch,"  Howard,  was  fitted  out  at  New  London, 
to  cruise  in  the  south  seas  after  whales ;  but  the  voyage  was  not  repeated. 
The  year  1805  mav  therefore  be  con.sidered  as  the  period  v.'hen  the  whaling 
business  actually  commenced  in  the  place,  and  the  ship  "Dauphin"  the  pioneer 
in  the  trade.  This  vessel  was  built  by  Capt.  John  Barber,  at  Pawkatuck 
Bridge,  with  express  reference  to  the  whale  fishery.  Her  burden  was  two 
hundred  and  forty  tons,  and  when  completed  she  was  filled  with  wood  and 
sent  to  New  York  for  sale.    Not  meeting  with  a  purchaser,  she  returned  and 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  in 

came  into  New  London  Harbor  in  the  autumn  of  1804.  Here  a  company  was 
formed,  chieflv  through  the  exertions  of  Dr.  S.  H.  P.  Lee,  the  first  mover 
in  the  enterprise,  who  bought  the  ship  and  fitted  her  for  whaling. 

The  "Dauphin,"  Capt.  Laban  Williams,  sailed  for  the  Brazil  Banks  Sep- 
tember 6th,  1805,  and  arrived  with  her  cargo  June  14th,  1806.  Dr.  Lee  then 
bought  the  ship  "Leonidas,"  in  New  York,  and  fitted  her  also  for  whaling. 
Both  ships  sailed  in  August :  Williams  in  the  "Leonidas,"  and  Alexander 
Douglas  in  the  "Dauphin."  The  "Dauphin"  arrived  in  April,  1807,  full.  The 
"Leonidas"  arrived  in  June,  1807,  1,050  barrels. 

In  1807  the  ship  "Lydia"  was  bought  in  New  York,  and  put  into  the 
business.  The  three  ships  went  to  the  coast  of  Patagonia.  The  "Lydia" 
(Douglas)  arrived  June  9th,  1808,  1,000  barrels.  The  "Dauphin"  (Sayre) 
arrived  June  13th,  1808,  900  barrels.  The  "Leonidas"  (Wm.  Barnes)  arrived 
June  23d,  1808,  1,200  barrels.  The  "Leonidas"  left  six  of  her  crew  on  the 
uninhabited  island  of  Trinidad ;  they  had  landed  for  refreshment,  and  the 
weather  becoming  very  boisterous,  the  wind  blowing  off  from  the  island 
and  so  continuing  for  many  days,  the  vessel  sailed  without  them.  In  July, 
the  schooner  "Experiment"  (S.  P.  Fitch)  w-as  sent  to  bring  them  away.  The 
"Leonidas"  (Douglas)  sailed  again  August  31st,  1808. 

The  embargo,  non-intercourse  and  war,  following  close  upon  each  other 
from  this  period,  entirely  broke  up  this,  as  well  as  every  other  species  of 
commerce.  The  West  India  trade,  which  in  former  times  had  been  the 
source  of  so  much  wealth  and  prosperity  to  the  town,  was  never  again  ex- 
tensively revived.  After  the  conclusion  of  peace,  only  a  few  vessels  were 
engaged  in  that  trai^c,  and  everv  year  diminished  the  number.  The  whale 
fishery  seemed  to  ofTer  itself  to  fill  the  void  of  this  declining  trade. 

In  1819  the  whaling  business  was  commenced  anew  by  T.  W.  Williams 
and  Daniel  Deshon ;  the  first  officers  employed  consisted  principally  of  per- 
sons vi^ho  had  gained  some  experience  in  the  former  short  period  of  the  busi- 
ness between  1805  and  1808.  The  brig  "Mar)-"  (James  Davis)  was  sent  out 
by  Williams;  the  brig  "Mary  Ann"  (Inglis)  and  the  ship  "Carrier"  (Alex- 
ander Douglas)  by  Deshon.  The  "Mary"  came  in  the  next  season,  June  7th, 
and  brought  the  first  results  of  the  new  enterprise.  She  was  out  ten  months 
and  twenty  days,  and  brought  in  744  barrels  of  whale-oil  and  78  of  sperm. 
The  "Carrier"  brought  928  barrels  of  whale  ;  the  "]\Iary  Ann"  only  59. 

In  1820,  the  brig  "Pizarro"  (Elias  L.  Coit)  was  added  to  the  fleet,  and 
in  1821  the  brig  "Thames"  (Bernard)  and  the  ship  "Commodore  Perry" 
(Davis).  The  last-named  vessel  was  built  in  1815,  at  East  Greenwich.  Rhode 
Island,  but  coppered  in  New  London,  after  she  was  engaged  in  the  whaling 
business.  It  was  the  first  time  that  this  operation  was  performed  in  the 
place,  and  the  "Commodore  Perry"  was  the  first  copper-bottomed  whaling 
vessel  sent  from  the  port.  On  her  first  voyage  she  was  out  eight  months  and 
four  days,  and  brought  in  1. 544  barrels  of  whale  oil  and  81  of  sperm. 

The  "Carrier"  (O.  Swain),  340  tons  burden,  was  the  first  vessel  from  the 
port  that  went  out  on  the  long  voyage  for  sperm  whale.  She  sailed  for  the 
Pacific  Ocean  February  20th,  1821,  and  arrived  July  12th,  1823,  with  2,074 
barrels.  In  November,  1821,  sailed  also  for  the  Pacific  the  new  ship  "Ston- 
ington"  (Ray),  built  at  Stonington,  but  sent  from  New  London.  In  1822  the 
ships  "Connecticut."  "Ann  Maria"  and  "Jones"  were  added  to  the  fleet,  and 
in  1824  the  "Neptune."  The  four  brigs  and  the  ship  "Carrier,"  after  making 
three  and  four  voyages  each,  were  withdrawn  from  the  business;  and  as  no 
other  vessels  were  added  till  1827,  at  the  commencement  of  that  year  the 
whaling  list  of  the  port  consisted  of  six  ships  only — three  of  them  right  whale 
and  three  sperm  cruisers.     Of  these,  five  were  fitted  out  by  T.  W.  Williams, 


112  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

and  the  "Commodore  Perry"  by  N.  and  W.  W.  Billings,  who  were  then  just 
launching  into  the  business,  and  who  purchased  the  same  year  the  "Superior" 
and  the  "Phenix." 

A  fine  ship  that  has  for  many  years  braved  the  storms  of  ocean  cannot 
be  regarded  with  indifference.  She  has  a  history  which,  if  it  could  be  written, 
would  be  full  of  interest.  A  few  brief  notes  respecting  the  older  ships  belong- 
ing to  the  port  may  therefore  be  acceptable. 

The  "Commodore  Perry"  made  seventeen  voyages,  and  the  "Stonington" 
thirteen.  They  both  gave  out,  and  were  broken  up  in  1848.  The  "Con- 
necticut" was  condemned  in  a  foreign  port  in  1848,  was  sold,  and  is  still 
afloat  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  "Ann  Maria"  was  run  down  by  a  French 
whaler  in  the  Indian  Ocean  in  1842.  The  "Jones"  made  sixteen  voyages,  and 
was  condemned  in  1842.  The  "Neptune"  and  "Superior,"  two  ships  that 
belonged  to  the  whaling  fleet  of  New  London  in  1852,  were  both  built  in  1808. 
The  "Superior"  was  built  in  Philadelphia,  and  purchased  by  N.  and  W.  W. 
Billings  in  1827;  the  "Neptune"  in  New  Bedford,  and  purchased  by  T.  W. 
Williams  in  1824,  for  $1650.  She  had  just  returned  from  an  unsuccessful 
whaling  voyage,  fitted  out  from  New  York,  and,  being  sixteen  years  old,  the 
sum  paid  for  her  was  considered  fully  equal  to  her  value.  She  sailed  on  her 
first  voyage  from  New  London,  June  7th,  1824,  has  made  eighteen  voyages, 
and  is  now  absent  (1852)  on  her  nineteenth,  having  been  forty-four  years 
afloat.  She  has  been  more  than  once  during  that  period  rebuilt,  but  has  not 
lost  her  identity;  her  keel,  stern-post  and  some  of  her  floor-timbers  belong 
to  the  original  frame. 

No  other  service  admits  of  such  rapid  promotion  as  whaling.  In  1821, 
Robert  B.  Smith  went  captain  of  the  "Mary."  His  experience  in  the  business 
had  been  gained  in  two  vo^'ages  only,  but  he  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most 
successful  and  enterprising  masters  in  the  trade.  He  was  the  first  to  reach 
the  amount  of  2,000  barrels  in  one  voyage,  which  he  did  in  the  "Ann  Maria" 
in  1823.  the  second  time  that  he  went  out  commander.  He  was  absent  eight 
months  and  twenty- two  days,  and  brought  in  1.919  barrels  of  whale  and  145 
of  sperm.  In  his  sixth  voyage  he  was  unfortunately  drowned  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  being  drawn  overboard  by  a  whale,  to  which  he  had  just  made  fast 
with  his  harpoon  and  line,  December  28th,  1828.  Captain  Smith's  four 
brothers  pursued  the  same  line  of  enterprise. 

Capt.  James  Smith  made  ten  voyages  as  captain,  and  several  of  them 
were  eminently  successful.  In  three  successive  voyages  in  the  "Columbia," 
made  to  the  island  of  Desolation,  from  which  he  returned  in  1840,  1842,  and 
1844,  he  brought  in  each  time  more  than  4,000  barrels  of  oil. 

Capt.  Franklin  Smith,  another  of  the  brothers,  made  the  most  successful 
series  of  voyages  to  be  found  in  the  whaling  annals  of  the  port  and  probably 
of  the  world  I  In  seven  voyages  to  the  South  Atlantic,  in  the  employ  of  N. 
and  W.  W.  Billings,  and  accomplished  in  seven  successive  years,  from  1831 
to  1837.  inclusive — one  in  the  "Flora,"  one  in  the  "Julius  Cesar,"  and  five  in 
the  "Tuscarora" — he  brought  home  16.154  barrels  of  whale,  1,147  of  sperm. 
This  may  be  regarded  as  a  brilliant  exhibiiton  of  combined  good  fortune  and 
skill.  Two  subsequent  voyages  made  by  him  in  the  "Chelsea"  were  also 
crowned  with  signal  success.  These  nine  voyages  were  accomplished  between 
June,  1830.  and  August,  1841. 

Capt.  John  Rice  was  one  of  the  crew  of  the  brig  "Mary"  in  1819,  and 
sailed  commander  of  the  "Pizarro,"  June  9th,  1822.  He  is  still  in  the  service 
(1852),  in  date  of  commission  the  oldest  whaling  captain  of  the  port. 

The  single  voyage  that  perhaps  before  any  other  merits  special  notice 
is  that  of  the  "Clematis"  (Capt.  Benjamin),  fitted  out  by  Williams  and  Barnes, 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  113 

and  arriving  July  4th,  1841.  She  was  out  ten  months  and  twenty-nine  days; 
went  round  the  world,  and  brought  home  2,548  barrels  of  oil.  This  voyage, 
when  the  time,  the  distance  sailed,  and  the  quantity  of  oil  brought  home  are 
considered  in  connection,  merits  to  be  ranked  among  remarkable  achieve- 
ments. 

There  is  no  associated  line  of  business  in  which  the  profits  are  more 
equitably  divided  among  those  engaged  in  it  than  in  the  whale  fishery.  The 
owners,  agents,  officers  and  crew  are  all  partners  in  the  voyage,  and  each  has 
his  proportionate  share  of  the  results.  Its  operation,  therefore,  is  to  enlarge 
the  means  and  multiply  the  comforts  of  the  many,  as  well  as  to  add  to  the 
wealth  of  the  wealthy.  The  old  West  India  trade,  which  preceded  it,  was 
destructive  in  a  remarkable  degree  to  human  life  and  health,  and  engendered 
habits  of  dissipation,  turbulence,  and  reckless  extravagance.  The  whaling 
business  is  a  great  advance  upon  this,  not  only  as  it  regards  life,  but  also  in 
its  relation  to  order,  happiness  and  morality.  The  mass  of  the  people,  the 
public,  gained  by  the  exchange. 

In  1845,  the  whaling  business  reached  its  maximum ;  seven  vessels  were 
added  that  year  to  the  fleet,  which  then  consisted  of  seventy-one  ships  and 
barks,  one  brig,  and  five  schooners.  In  January,  1846,  the  "McLellan,"  of 
336  tons,  was  purchased  by  Perkins  and  Smith,  with  th?  design  of  making 
an  experiment  in  the  Greenland  fishery.  This  made  the  seventy-eighth  vessel 
sailing  from  New  London  in  pursuit  of  whales,  and  ranked  the  place  more 
than  1,000  tons  before  Nantucket  in  the  trade.  New  Bedford  was  still  far 
ahead,  but  no  other  port  in  the  world  stood  between. 

The  "McLellan"  has  made  six  voyages  to  Davis'  Straits;  but  the  seasons 
have  been  peculiarly  unfavorable,  and  she  has  met  with  little  success.  She 
is  now  absent  (1852)  on  her  seventh  voyage. 

Employed  in  the  whale  fishery  from  New  London:  1820,  one  ship,  three 
brigs,  950  tons.  1846,  seventy-one  ships  and  barks,  one  brig,  six  schooners, 
26,200  tons;  capital  embarked,  nearly  $2,000,000.  In  1847,  the  tide  began 
to  ebb ;  the  trade  had  been  extended  beyond  what  it  would  bear,  and  was 
followed  by  a  depression  of  the  market  and  a  scarcity  of  whale.  The  fleet 
was  that  year  reduced  to  fifty-nine  ships  and  barks,  one  brig  and  six  schoon- 
ers: total,  sixty-six;  tonnage,  22,625.  I"  1850,  about  fifty  vessels  were  em- 
ployed, or  17,000  tons,  and  the  capital  about  $1,200,000.  In  1849  ^"^  1850, 
twenty-five  whaling  captains  abandoned  the  business  and  went  to  California. 
Value  of  imports  from  the  whale  fishery,  as  exhibited  by  the  custom-house 
returns:  1850,  $618,055;  1851,  $1,109,410. 

The  following  table  of  imports  of  whale  and  sperm  oil  into  the  port  of 
New  London,  from  1820  to  1851,  inclusive,  and  most  of  the  statistics  of  the 
whale  fishery  since  1820,  are  taken  from  the  Whaling  Record  of  Henry  P. 
Haven,  which  exhibits  the  date,  length,  and  results  of  every  whaling  voyage 
made  from  New  London  since  that  period : 


Ships  and 

Schooners 

Barrels  of 

Barrels  of 

Year 

Barks 

Brigs 

and  Sloops 

Whale  Oil 

Sperm  Oil 

1820 

I 

2 

0 

1. 73 1 

78 

1821 

0 

3 

0 

2,323 

los 

1822 

I 

4 

0 

4.528 

194 

1823 

4 

2 

0 

6,712 

2,318 

1824 

3 

2 

0 

4,996 

1,924 

1825 

4 

0 

0 

S.483 

2,276 

1826 

2 

0 

0 

2,804 

88 

1827 

5 

0 

0 

3.375 

6,166 

1828 

3 

0 

0 

5435 

168 

1829 

9 

0 

0 

11.325 

2,205 

S-.L.— 1-8 

114  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


1830 

14 

0 

0 

15,248 

9,792 

183 1 

14 

0 

0 

19,402 

5,487 

1832 

12 

0 

0 

21,375 

703 

1833 

17 

0 

0 

22,395 

8,503 

J834 

9 

I 

2 

12,930 

4,565 

183s 

13 

I 

0 

14.041 

11,868 

1836 

12 

I 

0 

18,663 

3,198 

1837 

17 

0 

I 

26,774 

8,469 

1838 

IS 

0 

3 

25.523 

3.426 

1839 

15 

I 

2 

26,278 

4,094 

1840 

17 

2 

I 

32,038 

4,110 

I84I 

IS 

I 

2 

26,893 

3.920 

1842 

16 

I 

3 

28,165 

4,055 

1843 

20 

0 

0 

34,677 

3,598 

1844 

18 

I 

3 

39,816 

2,296 

184s 

21 

0 

0 

52,576 

1,411 

1846 

13 

I 

2 

27,441 

1,306 

1847 

35 

0 

2 

76,287 

4.765 

1848 

20 

I 

I 

S4,iiS 

3,606 

1849 

17 

0 

3 

38,030 

1,949 

1850 

17 

0 

0 

36,545 

1,603 

1851 

26 

0 

2 

67,508 

2,914 

Shortest  voyage,  ship  "Manchester  Packet,"  1832 ;  seven  months  and 
nineteen  days  (not  including  voyages  of  the  "McLellan"  to  Davis'  Straits). 
Longest  voyage,  ship  "William  C.  Nye,"  arrived  February  loth,  1851 ;  out 
fifty-seven  months  and  eleven  days.  Largest  quantity  of  oil  in  one  voyage, 
ship  "Robert  Bowne,"  1848,  4,850  barrels.  Largest  quantity  of  whale-oil  in 
one  voyage,  ship  "Atlantic,  1848,  4,720  barrels.  Largest  quantity  of  sperm- 
oil  in  one  voyage,  ship  "Phoenix,"  1833,  2,971  barrels.  Largest  quantity  of 
oil  imported  in  any  one  ship,  ship  "Neptune,"  27,845  whale,  2,710  sperm. 

In  1847,  the  number  of  vessels  employed  from  New  London  in  freighting, 
coasting  and  home  fisheries  was  171,  viz.,  nine  ships  and  barks,  three  brigs, 
fifty-six  schooners,  103  sloops  and  smacks ;  whole  burden,  12,300  tons.*  The 
number  of  seamen  employed  in  the  whale  fishery  and  domestic  trade  was 
about  3,000. 

The  year  1849  was  distinguished  by  the  general  rush  for  California; 
nineteen  vessels  sailed  for  that  coast  from  New  London,  but  of  these  one 
schooner  was  fitted  in  Norwich,  and  two  or  three  others  were  in  part  made 
up  from  adjoining  towns.  The  statistics  of  the  business  with  California  for 
two  years  have  been  estimated  as  follows  ("New  London  Democrat")  :  Sent 
m  1849,  four  ships,  three  barks,  twelve  schooners ;  3,745  tons.  Passengers, 
152;  seamen,  186.  Value  of  goods:  merchandise,  $3,228;  domestic  products, 
^70,418;  domestic  manufactures,  $45,520. 

Sent  in  1850,  one  ship,  one  brig,  three  schooners ;  803  tons.  Passengers. 
15;  seamen,  53.  Value  of  merchandise,  $1,905;  domestic  products,  $19,598; 
domestic  manufactures,  $10,524. 

About  fifty  persons  from  New  London  went  in  steamers  or  vessels  from 
other  ports.  (Nine  or  ten  vessels  sailed  for  California  from  Mystic.)  The 
whole  number  that  went  from  the  place  to  California  in  those  two  years,  as 


*  From  statistics  furnished  the  Harbor  and  River  Convention,  at  Chicago,  in  December, 
1847,  by  T.  W.  Williams. 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  115 

seamen  and  passengers,  could  not  have  been  less  than  450. 

Of  the  effect  of  the  war  of  1812  on  New  London,  Miss  Caulkins  tells 
many  interesting  anecdotes.    One  instance  must  serve: 

Varied  and  numerous  were  the  events  of  the  town  and  neighborhood 
during  these  three  successive  years  of  constant  rigorous  blockade.  The  sloop 
"Juno,"  Captain  John  Howard,  continued  to  ply  back  and  forth  between  New 
London  and  New  York  during  the  whole  war  with  but  a  single  serious  acci- 
dent ;  that  was  the  loss  of  her  mast  by  a  shot  of  the  enemy  after  being  driven 
into  Saybrook  Harbor.  Her  enterprising  commander  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  Sound,  made  his  trips  during  the  darkest  nights  and  in  severest 
storms,  guided  often  by  the  lantern  lights  of  the  enemy's  ships  as  he  repeat- 
edly ran  through  their  blockading  squadron.  He  was  narrowly  watched  and 
several  times  pursued  by  their  boats  and  barges,  but  always  eluded  capture. 
Sometimes  when  too  closely  pursued,  a  spirited  fire  from  his  cannon,  four 
pieces  of  which  he  always  carried  on  deck,  only  to  be  used  in  defense,  would 
drive  away  his  pursuers  and  secure  his  little  craft  from  further  molestation. 
The  fact  that  the  enemy  were  fully  apprised  of  his  times  of  departure  and 
expected  arrival,  and  in  fact  all  his  movements,  through  the  newspapers, 
which  they  could  easily  obtain,  renders  it  the  more  remarkable  that  she 
escaped  their  vigilance. 

It  is  remarkable  that  during  the  whole  war  not  a  man  in  Connecticut 
was  killed,  notwithstanding  the  long  and  vigorous  blockade  and  the  many 
encounters  between  detachments  of  the  enemy  and  the  inhabitants.  One 
person  only,  a  Mr.  Dolph,  lost  his  life  on  the  waters  of  the  coast,  of?  Say- 
brook,  while  engaged  with  others  in  recovering  two  prizes  taken  by  the 
enemy.     Such  a  fact  appears  almost  miraculous. 

Commodore  Decatur  entertained  the  hope  that  some  opportunity  would 
offer  for  his  escape  with  his  vessels  during  the  winter,  and  watched  for  an 
opportunity  favorable  to  his  design.     His  vessel  dropped  down  and  remained 
at  anchor  opposite  the  town,  and  quietly  remained  waiting  for  some  remiss- 
ness of  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  enemy.     At  length  the  favorable  time 
seemed  to  have  arrived.     A  dark  night,  a  favorable  wind,  and  fair  tide,  all 
gave  every  expectation  of  success.     But  just  as  the  little  fleet  were  about 
to  start,  "blue-lights"  appeared  on  both  sides  of  the  river.     Such  an  unusual 
occurrence  gave  strong  suspicions  that  these  were  concerted  signals  to  the 
enemy,  and  notwithstanding  every  preparation  had  been  made  with  the  most 
profound   secrecy,    the   commodore   considered    himself   betrayed,   and    relin- 
quished  his  intentions,  making  no  further  effort  to  run  the   blockade.     Al- 
though he  was  firm   in  his  belief  that  his  intentions  were  thus  signaled  to 
the   enemy,   it  was   indignantly    denied  by   the   citizens   that   any   traitorous 
designs    existed,    and    that    the    lights    were    accidental,    or    that    those    who 
reported  them  to  the  commodore  were  mistaken.     He,  however,  removed  his 
two  large  vessels  up  the  river,  where  they  were  dismantled  and  only  a  guard 
left  on  board.     The  "Hornet"  remained  at  New  London,  and  subsequently 
slipped  out  of  the  harbor,  and,  eluding  capture,  reached  New  York  in  safety. 
The  restoration  of  peace  in  1815  was  an  occasion  of  general  rejoicing. 
Our  enemies  became  friends,  and  receptions,  balls,  and  public  rejoicings  sig- 


ii6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

nalized  the  event,  in  which  the  officers  of  the  British  squadron  cordially  par- 
ticipated, and  who  were  as  cordially  received  by  the  citizens  of  the  town. 
Such  was  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812. 

We  extract  from  Miss  Caulkins'  history  the  following  accounts  of  early 
e»terprise: 

The  first  regular  line  of  steamboats  from  New  York  to  New  London  was 
established  in  1816.  On  the  28th  of  September  in  that  year,  the  "Connecticut" 
(Bunker)  arrived  from  New  York  in  twenty-one  hours,  which  was  regarded 
as  a  signal  triumph  of  steam,  the  wind  and  a  swell  of  the  tide  being  against 
her.  In  October  the  regular  line  commenced,  making  two  trips  per  week  to 
New  Haven.  The  "Fulton"  (Captain  Law)  was  running  at  the  same  time 
between  New  York  and  New  Haven.  The  price  of  passage  was  five  dollars 
to  New  Haven,  and  from  thence  to  New  York,  four  dollars.  Steam  pro- 
pellers, carrying  principally  freight,  but  some  passengers,  commenced  navi- 
gating the  Sound  in  1844.     The  first  was  the  "Quinebaug." 

In  one  respect  New  London  stands  in  honorable  connection  with  the 
history  of  steam  navigation.  Capt.  Moses  Rogers,  the  commander  of  the 
steamship  "Savannah,"  the  first  steam  vessel  that  ever  crossed  the  Atlantic, 
and  Capt.  Stevens  Rogers,  sailing-master  of  the  same  and  brother-in-law  pf 
the  captain,  were  both  natives  of  New  London.  The  "Savannah"  was  built 
in  New  York,  under  the  direction  of  Captain  Rogers,  for  a  company  in 
Savannah,  and  was  a  full-rigged  ship  of  about  350  tons  burden,  and  fur- 
nished with  an  engine  of  eighty  or  ninety  horse-power,  by  which  she  made 
about  eight  knots  to  the  hour.  She  sailed  for  Savannah,  May  26th,  1819,  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  making  the  grand  experiment  of  ocean  steam  navigation. 
Mr.  Scarborough,  of  Savannah,  one  of  the  company  that  owned  the  steamer, 
asserted  that  they  had  no  other  object  in  view;  that  anticipating  the  use  of 
steam-enginery  in  that  line,  and  having  a  surplusage  of  profit  on  hand  from 
some  successful  operations  of  the  compan}-,  instead  of  dividing  it,  they  built 
and  fitted  out  the  "Savannah,"  in  order  to  give  to  America  the  honor  of 
making-  the  first  attempt  to  navigate  the  Atlantic  by  steam. 

The  passage  to  Liverpool  was  made  in  twenty-two  days,  fourteen  by 
steam  and  eight  by  sails,  the  latter  being  used  solely  through  the  prudence 
of  the  captain  to  save  the  consumption  of  fuel,  lest  some  emergency  might 
occur  and  the  supply  be  exhausted.  From  Liverpool  the  steamer  proceeded 
to  Copenhagen,  and  from  thence  to  Stockholm  and  to  St.  Petersburg.  At 
these  ports  she  excited  universal  admiration  and  interest.  Lying  at  anchor 
like  a  public  vessel,  with  no  business  to  accomplish,  no  port  charges  to  defray, 
no  cargo  to  take  on  board,  her  stay  was  a  continued  reception  of  visitors,  and 
her  whole  passage  through  the  Baltic  might  be  likened  to  a  triumphant  pro- 
cession. Bernadotte,  King  of  Sweden,  and  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  with  their 
nobles  and  public  officers,  not  only  came  on  board  to  examine  the  wonderful 
American  steamer,  but  tested  her  performance  by  short  excursions  in  the 
neighboring  waters.  On  the  return  home,  the  last  place  left  in  Europe  was 
Arendel,  in  Norway,  from  whence  the  passage  to  Savannah  was  made  in 
twenty-five  days,  nineteen  by  steam  and  six  by  sails. 

Capt.  Moses  Rogers  gained  his  experience  as  a  steam  engineer  on  the 
Hudson  river,  where  he  had  been  engaged  in  some  of  the  earliest  experiments 
in  propelling  vessels  by  steam,  .\fter  his  return  from  the  voyage  in  the 
"Savannah,"  he  took  command  of  a  steamboat  running  on  the  Great  Pedee 
river,  and  died  suddenly  at  Cheraw,  South  Carolina,  September  15th,  1822, 
at  the  age  of  forty-two  years. 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  117 

Capt.  Stevens  Rogers  is  now  an  officer  of  the  customs  in  New  London, 
and  from  him  the  foregoing  account  of  the  first  voyage  by  steam  across  the 
Atlantic  is  derived.  He  has  in  his  possession  a  massive  gold  snufif-box  pre- 
sented to  him  by  Lord  Lyndock,  an  English  nobleman  who  took  passage  in 
the  steamer  from  Stockholm  to  St.  Petersburg,  through  an  arrangement  made 
for  him  by  Mr.  Hughes,  the  American  Minister  at  the  Swedish  court.  On  the 
inside  of  the  lid  is  the  following  inscription:  "Presented  by  Sir  Thomas 
Graham,  Lord  Lyndock,  to  Stevens  Rogers,  sailing-master  of  the  steam-ship 
'Savannah,'  at  St.  Petersburg,  October  loth,  1819." 

Capt.  Moses  Rogers,  among  other  costly  presents,  received  from  the 
Emperor  of  Russia  an  elegant  silver  tea-urn.  The  log-book  kept  during  this 
voyage  is  deposited  in  the  National  Institute  at  Washington. 

The  development  of  New  London  county  since  the  Civil  War  days  has 
been  mostly  along  the  lines  of  manufacturing,  though  many  of  our  smaller 
towns  are  still  chiefly  agricultural  in  their  interests.  Special  articles  have 
been  prepared  on  many  topics,  but  in  general  it  may  be  said  that  our  enter- 
prises are  characterized  by  their  variety.  The  main  industries  are  cotton 
and  woolen  manufactures,  with  many  others  of  great  importance,  among 
them  the  making  of  quilts,  of  leather  goods,  of  paper,  of  bleaching  and 
printing,  of  shipbuilding,  the  making  of  engines,  of  velvet,  of  machinery  of 
many  sorts,  of  cutlery,  of  guns,  of  hardware,  of  birch  and  witch  hazel  oils, 
of  menhaden  oil,  of  silk,  of  soap,  of  lace,  and  many  other  articles  too  numerous 
to  mention.  The  inventive  genius  of  the  Connecticut  Yankee  has  been  re- 
vealed in  our  county  as  clearly  as  in  the  rest  of  the  State. 

The  account  of  early  newspapers  is  likewise  of  interest.  The  first  news- 
paper of  the  town  bore  the  following  title :  "The  New  London  Summary,  or 
The  Weekly  Advertiser,  With  the  Freshest  Advices,  Foreign  and  Domestic." 

At  the  close  of  the  paper  was  the  notification,  "Printed  by  Timothy 
Green."  It  was  a  folio  sheet ;  the  size  of  the  page  about  twelve  inches  by 
eight,  with  two  columns  of  print.  The  heading  was  adorned  with  an  orna- 
mented cut  of  the  colony  seal,  with  the  escutcheon  of  the  town  added  by 
way  of  crest,  viz.,  a  ship  in  full  sail.  The  first  number  was  issued  August 
8th,  1758.    The  editor  died  August  3d,  1763,  and  the  paper  was  discontinued. 

2.  "The  New  London  Gazette,"  with  a  stamp  of  the  king's  arms,  appeared 
in  November,  1763.  The  size  was  considerably  increased,  the  print  arranged 
in  three  columns,  and  the  price  6s.  per  annum,  one-half  to  be  paid  on  the 
delivery  of  the  first  number.  This  was  in  fact  the  same  paper  under  another 
name,  being  a  continuation  by  Timothy  Green,  nephew  and  assistant  of  the 
former  publisher;  but  as  the  numerical  series  of  the  summary  was  not  con- 
tinued, the  numbers  being  commenced  anew,  it  may  be  classed  as  another 
paper.  It  was  soon  enlarged  in  size,  and  the  name  changed  in  the  course  of 
a  few  years  to  "The  Connecticut  Gazette."  This  had  been  the  title  of  the 
first  newspaper  in  the  colony,  established  in  New  Haven,  1755.  by  James 
Parker  and  Co.,  John  Holt,  editor,  but  discontinued  in  1767,  and  there  being 
then  no  paper  in  the  colony  bearing  that  title,  it  was  adopted  by  the  pro- 


ii8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

prietor  of  the  New  London  paper.  In  1789  Mr.  Green  took  his  son  Samuel 
into  partnership  with  him,  and  the  "Gazette"  was  issued  by  Timothy  Green 
and  Son  to  1794,  when  Samuel  Green  assumed  the  whole  business.  In  1805 
he  retired  a  while  from  the  paper,  and  it  was  issued  by  Cady  and  Eells  (Eben- 
ezer  P.  Cady  and  Nathaniel  Eells).  In  May,  1808,  it  was  resumed  by  Green, 
and  continued  to  January,  1838,  when  it  passed  for  two  years  into  the  hands 
of  John  J.  Hyde,  who  was  both  editor  and  publisher.  In  1840  it  reverted  to 
the  former  proprietor,  or  to  his  son,  S.  H.  Green,  and  was  conducted  by  the 
latter  to  July,  1841.  The  next  editor  was  A.  G.  Seaman,  by  whom  it  was 
continued  about  three  years,  after  which  the  existence  of  the  "Gazette"  en- 
tirely ceased.  It  had  been  issued  regularly  under  the  name  of  the  "Gazette" 
for  more  than  eighty  years. 

We  would  here  notice  that  the  Spooner  family,  which  is  connected  with 
the  history  of  newspapers  in  this  country,  was  linked  both  by  marriage  and 
occupation  with  the  Greens.  Judah  P.  Spooner  and  Alden  Spooner,  early 
printers  in  Vermont,  were  sons  of  Thomas  Spooner  (who  came  to  New 
London  from  Newport  in  1753),  and  brothers-in-law  of  Timothy  Green. 
Alden  Spooner  (26),  son  of  the  first-named  of  the  brothers,  was  a  native  of 
New  London.  He  is  known  as  the  editor  of  the  "Suffolk  Gazette,"  published 
at  Sag  Harbor  from  1804  to  181 1,  and  of  the  "Long  Island  Star,"  which  he 
conducted  from  181 1  to  his  death,  a  period  of  about  thirty-five  years. 

Charles  Miner,  long  a  noted  printer  in  Wilkes-Barre,  Pennsylvania,' 
obtained  his  knowledge  of  the  business  in  the  "Gazette"  office  at  New  London. 
He  was  for  a  number  of  years  a  member  of  Congress,  and  has  left  an  endur- 
ing memorial  of  his  talents  and  research  in  the  "History  of  Wyoming,"  of 
which  he  is  the  author. 

Green's  "Connecticut  Register"  was  first  published  in  1785,  and  again 
in  1786 ;  it  was  then  intermitted  for  one  year,  but  has  regularly  appeared  every 
year  since,  making,  inclusive  of  1852,  seventy-six  volumes.* 

After  the  year  1750,  the  Greens  annually  printed  an  "Almanac  or  Astro- 
nomical Diary."  The  first  numbers  were  prepared  by  James  Davis,  and 
calculated  for  the  meridian  of  New  London.  Next  to  the  series  of  Davis, 
tliey  reprinted  the  "Boston  Almanac"  of  Nathaniel  Ames,  until  1766,  when 
Clark  Elliott,  a  mathematician  and  instrument  maker  who  had  settled  in 
New  London,  commenced  an  independent  series  of  almanacs  which  were  at 
first  published  with  his  own  name  but  afterward  with  the  assumed  one  of 
Edmund  Freebetter.  This  change  is  said  to  have  been  caused  by  a  mistake 
which  Elliott  made  in  one  of  his  astronomical  calculations,  which  so  much 
disconcerted  him  that  he  refused  ever  after  to  affix  his  name  to  the  almanac. 
He  died  in  1793,  and  Nathan  Daboll,  of  Groton,  began  his  series  of  almanacs 
with  that  year,  which  were  continued  by  him  during  his  life,  and  have  been 


*  Col.  Samuel  Green,  for  so  many  years  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  "Gazette,"  though 
no  longer  a  resident  in  New  London,  is  still  living  (1852),  eighty-four,  realizing  that  happy 
enjoyment  of  health,  cheerfulness  and  prosperity  which  is  designated  as  a  green  old  age. 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  119 

prepared  by  successors  of  the  same  name  and  family  to  the  present  year,  1852. 
Nathan  Daboll  was  a  self-taught  mathematician.  He  compiled  an  arith- 
metic which  was  extensively  used  in  the  schools  of  New  England,  and  a 
system  of  practical  navigation  that  was  also  highly  esteemed.  He  opened  a 
school  in  New  London  for  the  common  and  higher  branches  of  mathematics, 
and  the  principles  of  navigation.  He  died  in  Groton,  March  9th,  1918,  aged 
sixty-eight. 

3.  "The  Weekly  Oracle,  printed  and  published  by  James  Springer,  oppo- 
site the  Market,"  was  the  title  of  a  newspaper  commenced  at  New  London  in 
October,  1796,  and  continued  four  years. 

4.  "The  Bee,  printed  and  published  by  Charles  Holt."  This  paper  was 
commenced  June  14th,  1797,  and  discontinued  June  30th,  1802.  The  editor 
immediately  issued  proposals  for  publishing  a  paper  with  the  same  title  at 
Hudson,  New  York.  "The  Bee"  may  therefore  be  considered  as  transferred 
to  that  place.  This  paper  was  a  prominent  organ  of  the  Democratic  party, 
and  under  the  administration  of  the  elder  Adams  the  editor  was  arrested  for 
a  libel,  tried  by  the  United  States  Court  then  sitting  at  New  Haven,  and 
under  the  provisions  of  the  sedition  law  condemned  to  six  months'  imprison- 
me;it  and  to  pay  a  fine  of  $200.  Charles  Holt  was  a  native  of  New  London ; 
he  died  in  Jersey  City,  opposite  New  York,  in  August,  1852,  aged  seventy- 
eight. 

5.  "The  Republican  Advocate,"  established  in  February,  1818,  continued 
about  ten  years.  It  was  first  issued  by  Clapp  and  Francis  (Joshua  B.  Clapp 
and  Simeon  Francis),  but  after  four  or  five  years  the  partnership  dissolved. 
Francis  removed  to  the  west,  and  for  a  number  of  years  published  a  news- 
paper in  Springfield,  Illinois.  Clapp  continued  the  "Advocate"  alone  until 
about  the  close  of  the  year  1828,  when  he  sold  the  establishment  to  John 
Eldridge.  The  latter  changed  the  name  to  "The  Connecticut  Sentinel,"  but 
the  publication  was  not  long  continued. 

6.  "The  People's  Advocate,  and  New  London  County  Republican."  This 
paper  was  commenced  August  26,  1840,  with  the  immediate  object  in  view 
of  promoting  the  election  of  William  Henry  Harrison  to  the  presidency.  The 
proprietor  was  Benjamin  P.  Bissell.  The  editor  for  1840,  John  Jay  Hyde; 
for  1841,  Thomas  P.  Trott.  Bissell  then  took  the  whole  charge  of  the  paper 
till  his  death,  September  3d,  1842.  In  1843,  J.  G.  Dolbeare  and  W.  D.  Man- 
ning appeared  as  associate  editors  and  proprietors,  but  the  next  year  Dol- 
beare assumed  the  sole  editorship.  In  November,  1844,  he  commenced  the 
first  daily  paper  published  in  New  London;  it  was  a  folio  sheet,  the  page 
twelve  inches  by  nine,  and  called  "The  Morning  News."  In  April,  1848,  the 
"Advocate"  and  the  "News"  were  merged  in  the  "Weekly  and  Daily  Chron- 
icle," which,  commencing  a  new  series  of  numbers  and  bearing  a  different 
name,  must  be  considered  as  altogether  a  new  undertaking. 

7.  "The  New  London  Democrat"  was  commenced  March  22d,  1845,  by 
J.  M.  Scofield  and  S.  D.  Macdonald  ;  but  the  second  editor  retired  with  the 
publication  of  the  forty -fourth  number.     January  ist,  1848,  Scofield,  in  con- 


I20  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

nection  with  the  "Democrat,"  commenced  a  daily  paper  entitled  "The  Morn- 
ing Star."  He  has  since  emigrated  to  California,  having  assigned  his  whole 
printing  establishment,  January  ist,  1849,  to  D.  S.  Ruddock,  the  present  editor 
and  proprietor  of  the  "Star  and  Democrat." 

8.  "The  New  London  Weekly  and  Daily  Chronicle"  were  first  issued  in 
May,  1848,  by  C.  F.  Daniels  and  F.  H.  Bacon,  an  association  which  continued 
for  three  years.  Since  August,  1851,  C.  F.  Daniels  has  been  sole  editor  and 
proprietor. 

The  above  are  all  the  serial  publications  of  the  town  that  have  been 
continued  long  enough  to  count  their  existence  by  years.  Transient  under- 
takings for  a  special  purpose,  and  some  occasional  papers  not  issued  at  regular 
intervals  have  been  omitted. 

The  following  passage  is  selected  from  an  article  by  Miss  Charlotte  M. 
HoUoway,  written  in  1897: 

New  London  fairly  teems  with  well  authenticated  anecdotes  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  it  is  hard  to  pass  through  the  older  part  of  the  town  without  find- 
ing objects  of  interest;  but  the  Revolutionary  part  of  local  history  has  been 
so  thoroughly  covered  that  but  passing  mention  can  be  made  of  the  houses 
which  stood  in  that  period. 

On  Main  street  are  the  Guy  Richards,  corner  Main  and  Richards  streets ; 
the  Red  Fox  Tavern,  where  Washington  stopped  in  1756;  the  Episcopal  par- 
sonage, the  home  of  Mather  Byles;  and  the  Burbeck  house,  all  between  Fed- 
eral and  Masonic  streets.  The  latter  was  the  home  of  Maj.-Gen.  Henry 
Burbeck,  brevet  brigadier-general  of  the  United  States  army,  the  founder  of 
the  L^nited  States  Military  Academy,  and  second  chief  of  artillery,  and  the 
man  who  did  so  much  to  bring  that  branch  of  service  to  its  splendid  rank. 
He  served  with  distinction  in  the  Revolution,  was  a  personal  friend  of  Wash- 
ington, served  with  great  distinction  as  chief  of  artillery  to  General  Wayne 
in  the  war  with  the  Miamis,  was  thanked  in  general  orders,  and  in  1800  was 
in  military  command  of  all  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and  Eastern  and  Middle 
States,  with  his  headquarters  at  Washington,  and  in  1801  began  the  Academy 
at  West  Point.  After  a  faithful,  continuous  service  in  the  most  useful  and 
arduous  labor  for  the  advancement  of  the  army,  he  was  retired,  and  devoted 
himself  to  his  home  in  New  London.  On  July  4.  1846,  he  was  made  president 
of  the  Massachusetts  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.  He  died  in  October,  1848, 
and  the  Cincinnati  erected  the  fine  shaft  to  his  memory  in  Cedar  Grove.  The 
town  had  a  taste  of  his  quality.  It  had  decreed  that  the  three  elms  which 
stand  before  the  house  should  fall.  The  General  determined  they  should  not, 
and  when  he  placed  himself  before  them,  gun  in  hand,  and  swore  to  shoot 
the  first  who  touched  them,  he  persuaded  the  selectmen  that  he  was  right. 
Within  the  old  house  now  dwell  his  sons.  William  Henry,  a  member  of  the 
Cincinnati  and  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution ;  John ;  and  Charlotte, 
who  is  nearing  one  hundred  years,  an  honorary  member  of  the  Lucretia  Shaw 
Chapter,  D.  A.  R.,  which  has  three  daughters  of  Revolutionary  soldiers  on 
its  list. 

The  Hempstead  house,  built  and  fortified  in  1678,  is  the  third  oldest  in 
the  State.  It  was  the  home  of  Sheriff  Hempstead,  famous  for  his  skill  and 
courage,  and  of  the  Joshua  whose  diary  is  such  a  mine  of  gossip  and  informa- 
tion. It  is  preserved  faithfully,  as  it  was  known  to  generations  of  Hemp- 
stead, its  quaint  interior  unmarred  by  modern  touch  by  its  owner,  the  well- 


CITY  OF  NEW  LONDON  121 

known  author,  Mary  Bolles  Branch,  a  descendant  of  Hempsteads.  The  old 
stone  house  wreathed  with  ivy,  its  neigfhbor,  was  built  by  Huguenots,  in  1697. 
On  the  plateau  of  Manwaring  Hill,  commanding  a  magnificent  view  of 
the  Sound,  a  site  of  surpassing  beauty,  stands  the  old  Manwaring  manor. 
Since  1660  the  land  has  been  in  possession  of  the  family.  No  one  has  read 
Miss  Caulkins'  "History  of  New  London"  without  being  impressed  with  the 
limpid  clearness  of  her  style  and  the  pleasant  humor  which  made  her  digress 
occasipnally  from  the  dry-as-dust  pathway  of  fact  to  pluck  some  of  the  fra- 
grant flowers  of  tradition.  Frances  Manwaring  Caulkins  was  born  in  New 
London,  April  26,  1795,  and  died  here,  February  3,  1869.  Through  her  father 
she  was  a  descendant  of  Hugh  Caulkins,  who  came  with  Richard  Blinman, 
the  first  minister  of  the  colony.  On  her  mother's  side  her  ancestry  was  noted 
in  early  English  history,  Sir  Ranulphus  de  Manwaring  being  justice  of  Ches- 
ter in  1189-99;  another,  Sir  William,  was  killed  in  the  streets  of  Chester, 
defending  Charles  L,  October  9,  1644.  For  thirty  generations  the  Manwarings 
held  Over  Peover,  the  family  seat.  Her  father  died  before  she  was  born,  and 
her  uncle,  Christopher  Manwaring,  a  gentleman  noted  for  generosity,  culture 
and  literary  tastes,  was  exceedingly  fond  of  his  talented  niece,  aiding  her  with 
his  library,  and  for  seven  years  she  dwelt  with  him.  When  she  desired  trj 
teach,  he  set  apart  a  room,  still  called  her  schoolroom.  He  married  for  his 
second  wife  Mary  Wolcott,  a  noted  beauty,  and  daughter  of  the  famous  Wol- 
cott  family.  The  widow  of  his  son.  Dr.  Robert  Alexander  Manwaring,  Ellen 
Barber  Manwaring  (daughter  of  Noyes  Barber,  for  eighteen  years  Congress- 
man from  this  district,  the  friend  of  Henry  Clay,  Daniel  Webster  and  William 
Henry  Harrison,  who  was  to  have  had  him  in  his  cabinet),  occupies  the 
mansion  with  her  only  son,  Wolcott  B.  Manwaring. 

No  landmark  in  New  London  is  more  interesting  than  its  old  mill.  The 
following  poem  by  M.  G.  Brainard,  in  the  "New  London  Day,"  is  rich  in 
suggestion : 

THE  OLD  MILL  AT  NEW  LONDON 

The  same  old  mill  that  Winthrop  built; 

Few  were  the  men  that  saw  it  rise; 
Today  it  passes  on  their  life. 

Transmitted  through  the  centuries. 

In  quietude  this  lowly  house 

Has  stood  beside  the  peaceful  glen. 
And  seen  the  busy  years  go  by, 

Full  of  the  toils  of  busy  men. 

Has  stood  through  revolution's  blood 

Recorded  Arnold's  guilty  raid. 
And  looked  on  England's  ships  of  war, 

From  out  its  oft  secluded  shade; 

Has  seen  our  churches  and  our  schools 

With  tower  and  spire  rise  one  by  one; 
Has  heard  the  chimes  of  Sabbath  bells 

Ring  out  their  call  from  sire  to  son. 

Has  heard  the  rising  city's  din. 

The  railroad's  shriek,  the  steamboat's  call. 
Yet  never  through  the  tumult  lost 

The  dash  of  its  own  waterfall. 


122  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

And  men  have  come  and  men  have  gone, 
Houses  been  built  and  homes  laid  low; 

And  now,  the  same  old  mill-stone  turns 
E'en  as  two  centuries  ago. 

How  many  through  this  wild  ravine 
Have  wandered  in  their  youthful  day. 

And  where  the  water  rushed  between, 
Have  skipped  from  rock  to  rock  their  way. 

Then,  from  the  miller's  humbler  door, 
With  borrowed  cup,  have  rushed  in  haste 

To  where  the  ever-flowing  trough 
Poured  for  each  thirsty  lip  a  taste. 

How  many  by  the  placid  pond. 
The  little  wharf,  the  dainty  bridge. 

Have  watched  the  willows  as  they  dipped 
Their  fringes  in  the  water's  edge. 

Or,  lingering  near  this  quiet  spot 
In  the  soft  moonlight  pale  and  still. 

Have  listened  to  the  water's  gush 
And  drank  the  peace  of  the  old  mill. 

Some  changes — 'tis  not  all  the  same ; 

The  years  could  never  leave  us  all ; 
Time's  footsteps  make  their  impress  felt, 

How-ever  silent  be  their  fall. 

Some  little,  low,  deserted  room, 
With  lacy  cobwebs  hanging  o'er 

Some  widening  rifts  among  the  laths 
Show  what  was  once  that  is  no  more. 

And  still  the  water  wends  its  way 
With  rush  and  gush  of  happy  sound. 

And  throws  its  arch  of  sparkling  spray. 
And  pushes  the  big  wheel  around. 

Long  may  the  ancient  mill-stone  grind! 

Long  may  the  ancient  mill  be  seen ! 
Long  wave  the  trees,  long  flow  the  pond  I 

Long  rest  the  rocks  in  their  ravine ! 

Long,  through  the  narrow,  open  door 
And  little  window  o'er  the  wheel. 

May  sunshine  gleam  upon  the  floor 
O'er  golden  heaps  and  bags  of  meal. 

Soft  be  the  touch  of  rushing  time, 
Sv.'ift  as  they  need  the  prompt  repairs ; 

Reverent  the  care  shall  pass  thee  on 
As  thou  hast  been,  to  waitmg  years. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CITY  OF  NORWICH 

Its  Founding — First  Settlers — Development  of  the  Town — During  the  Revolution- 
Reminiscent  Letters  from  Former  Residents — Beginnings  of  Manufacturing — Early 
Newspapers — The  Jubilee  of  1859 — Abraham  Lincoln  Visits  the  City — Roll  of  Noted 
People — Description  of  the  Town  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

The  following  is  from  the  pen  of  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman: 
THE  INLAND  CITY  (1851) 

Guarded  by  circling  streams  and  wooded  mountains 

Like  sentinels  round  a  queen, 
Dotted  with  groves  and  musical  with  fountains, 

The  city  lies  serene. 

Not  far  away  the  Atlantic  tide  diverges. 

And,  up  the  southern  shore 
Of  gray  New  England,  rolls  in  shortened  surges. 

That  murmur  evermore. 

The  fairy  citj' !  not  for  frowning  castle 

Do  I  extol  her  name; 
Not  for  the  gardens  and  the  domes  palatial 

Of  Oriental  fame; 

Yet  if  there  be  one  man  who  will  not  rally, 

One  man,  who  sayeth  not 
That  of  all  cities  in  the  Eastern  valley 

Ours  is  the  fairest  spot; 

Then  let  him  roam  beneath  those  elms  gigantic, 

Or  idly  wander  where 
Shetucket  flows  meandering,  where  Yantic 

Leaps  through  the  cloven  air, 

Gleaming  from  rock  to  rock  with  sunlit  motion, 

Then  slumbering  in  the  cove ; 
So  sinks  the  soul  from  Passion's  wild  devotion. 

To  the  deep  calm  of  love.  , 

And  journey  with  me  to  the  village  olden. 

Among  whose  devious  ways 
Are  mossy  mansions,  rich  with  legends  golden 

Of  early  forest  days ; 

Elysjan  time !  when  by  the  rippling  water. 

Or  in  the  woodland  groves. 
The  Indian  warrior  and  the  Sachem's  daughter 

Whispered  their  artless  loves; 


124  >^'E^V  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

Legends  of  fords,  where  Uncas  made  his  transit. 

Fierce  for  the  border  war. 
And  drove  all  day  the  alien  Narragansett 
Back  to  his  haunts  afar; 

Tales  of  the  after  time,  when  scant  and  humble 

Grew  the  Mohegan  band, 
And  Tracy,  Griswold,  Huntington  and  Trumbull, 

Were  judges  in  the  land. 

So  let  the  caviler  feast  on  old  tradition, 

And  then  at  sunset  climb 
Up  yon  green  hill,  where,  on  his  broadened  vision 

May  burst  the  view  sublime! 

The  city  spires,  with  stately  power  impelling 

The  soul  to  look  above, 
And  peaceful  homes,  in  many  a  rural  dwelling, 

Lit  up  with  flames  of  love; — 

And  then  confess,  nor  longer  idly  dally, 

While  sinks  the  lingering  sun. 
That  of  all  cities  in  the  Eastern  valley 

Ours  is  the  fairest  one. 

The  town  of  Xorwich  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Sprague  and  Franklin, 
on  the  east  by  Lisbon  and  Preston,  on  the  south  by  Preston  and  Montville, 
and  on  the  west  by  Bozrah  and  Franklin.  The  original  town  of  nine  miles 
square  has  lost  its  area  by  the  setting  off  of  Bozrah,  Franklin  and  Lisbon  in 
1/86,  and  by  the  loss  of  a  portion  of  the  present  Preston  in  1687.  The  deed 
of  the  town  land  was  executed  by  Uncas.  Owaneco.  and  .A.ttawanhood  June 
6,  1659,  and  reads  as  follows : 

Deed  of  Norwich. 

Know  all  men  that  Onkos,  Owaneco.  .^ttawanhood,  Sachems  of  Mohegan 
have  Bargined,  sold,  and  passed  over,  and  doe  by  these  presents  sell  and  pass 
over  unto  the  Towne  and  Inhabitants  of  Norwich  nine  miles  square  of  land 
lying  and  being  at  Moheagan  and  the  parts  thereunto  adjoyneing,  with  all 
ponds,  rivers,  woods,  quarries,  mines,  with  all  royalties,  privileges,  and  appur- 
tenances thereunto  belonging,  to  them  the  said  inhabitants  of  Norwich,  theire 
heirs  and  successors  forever — the  said  lands  are  to  be  bounded  as  followeth. 
(viz.)  to  the  southward  on  the  west  side  of  the  Great  River,  ye  line  is  to  begin 
at  the  brooke  falling  into  the  head  of  Trading  Cove,  and  soe  to  run  west 
norwest  seven  miles — from  thence  the  line  to  run  nor  north  east  nine  miles, 
and  on  the  East  side  the  afores'd  river  to  the  southward  the  line  is  to  joyne 
with  New  London  bounds  as  it  is  now  laid  out  and  soe  to  run  east  two  miles 
from  the  foresd  river,  nor  norwest  nine  miles  to  meet  with  the  western  line. 

In  consideration  whereof  the  sd  Onkos.  Owaneco  and  Attawanhood  doc 

acknowledge  to  have  received  of  the  parties  aforesd  the  full  and  juste  sum 
of  seventy  pounds  and  doe  promise  and  engage-  ourselves,  heirs  and  succes- 
sors, to  warrant  the  sd  bargain  and  sale  to  the  aforesd  parties,  their  heirs  and 
successors,  and  them  to  defend  from  all  claimes  and  molestations  from  any 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  125 

whatsoever. — In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  set  to  our  hands  this  6th 
of  June,  Anno  1659. 

Unkos 

OWANECO 

Attawanhood 
Witness  hereunto,  John  Mason,  Thomas  Tracy. 

This  deed  is  recorded  in  the  Country  Booke,  August  20th,  1663:  as  attests 
John  Allyn,  secretary.  The  bounds  of  this  tract,  as  more  particularly  de- 
scribed in  the  first  volume  of  the  Proprietors'  Records,  were  as  follows : 

The  line  commenced  at  the  mouth  of  Trading  Cove,  where  the  brook  falls 
into  the  cove;  thence  W.  N.  W.  seven  miles  to  a  Great  Pond  (now  in  the 
corner  of  Bozrah  and  Colchester),  the  limit  in  this  direction  being  denoted 
by  a  black  oak  marked  N  that  stood  near  the  outlet  of  "Great  Brook  that  runs 
out  of  the  pond  to  Norwich  river,"  thence  N.  N.  E.  nine  miles  to  a  black  oak 
standing  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  (Shetucket),  "a  little  above  Maw-mi- 
ag-waug";  thence  S.  S.  E.  nine  miles,  crossing  the  Shetucket  and  the  Quine- 
baug,  and  passing  through  "a  Seader  Swamp  called  Catantaquck,"  to  a  white 
oak  tree,  marked  N.  thirteen  rods  beyond  a  brook  called  Quo-qui-qua-soug, 
the  space  from  the  Quinebaug  to  this  tree  being  just  one  mile  and  fifty-eight 
rods;  thence  S.  S.  W.  nine  miles  to  a  white  oak  marked  N,  near  the  dwelling- 
houses  of  Robert  Allyn  and  Thomas  Rose,  where  Norwich  and  New  London 
bounds  join ;  thence  west  on  the  New  London  bounds,  crossing  the  southern 
part  of  Mr.  Brewster's  land,  two  miles  to  Mohegan  river,  opposite  the  mouth 
of  Trading  Cove  brook  where  the  first  bounds  began. 

Such  were  the  bounds,  as  reviewed  and  renewed  in  October,  1685,  by  an 
authorized  committee,  accompanied  by  the  two  sachems  and  some  of  the 
chief  men  of  Mohegan.  The  former  deed  of  1659,  with  the  boundaries  thus 
described  and  explained,  was  then  ratified  and  confirmed  by  "Owaneca, 
sachem  of  Mohegan,  son  and  heire  unto  Vnchas  deceased,"  and  "Josiah,  son 
and  heire  unto  Owaneca."  in  a  new  deed,  signed  by  them  October  5th,  1685, 
witnessed  by  John  Arnold  and  Stephen  Gifford,  and  acknowledged  before 
James  Fitch,  assistant. 

The  southern  boundary  line,  it  will  be  observed,  is  nine  miles  in  length, 
two  east  of  the  river,  and  seven  west,  without  counting  the  breadth  of  the 
Thames,  and  the  length  of  Trading  Cove  to  the  mouth  of  the  brook,  which 
would  make  this  line  nearly  ten  miles  long.  This  is  explained  in  the  deed  to 
be  designed  as  a  compensation  for  "the  benefit  and  liberty  of  the  waters  and 
river  for  fishing  and  other  occasions,"  reserved  to  the  Indians. 

Of  the  original  so-called  "thirty-five  proprietors,"  Miss  Caulkins  writes 
as  follows: 

Who  were  the  original  proprietors  of  Norwich?  The  current  statement 
that  they  were  just  thirty-five  in  number  is  based  upon  the  authority  of  his- 
torians writing  more  than  a  century  after  the  settlement.  Dr.  Trumbull  in 
his  "History  of  Connecticut"  gives  this  number,  relying,  it  is  supposed,  upon 
a  list  furnished  in  1767  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lord,  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of 
Norwich.  Dr.  Lord's  manuscript  is  extant.  He  says:  "The  town  of  Norwich 
was  settled  in  the  spring  of  1660:  the  Purchase  of  sd  Town  was  made  in  ye 
month  of  June,  1659,  by  35  men." 


126  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

He  then  gives  a  list  of  the  names,  which  includes  several  who  were 
minors  at  that  time,  and  one  at  least  (John  Elderkin)  whose  earliest  grant 
at  Norwich  was  in  1667. 

Laying  aside,  therefore,  all  subsequent  statements  and  recurring  to  the 
oldest  records  remaining  at  Norwich  from  which  these  abstracts  must  have 
been  derived,  it  is  found  that  the  original  records  were  very  deficient  in  giving 
dates  to  the  early  grants.  Resolutions  passed  at  different  periods  in  ths 
town  meetings  refer  to  this  defect. 

In  1672  a  new  record  of  lands  was  made  under  direction  of  the  town 
authorities,  by  James  Fitch,  Jr.  It  was  commenced  May  1st  of  that  year, 
and  the  book  contains  a  registry  of  the  town  lands  and  grants,  "so  far  as 
copies  of  said  lands  were  brought  in  by  the  inhabitants."  The  number  of 
land-owners  recorded  is  seventy-eight,  three  or  four  of  whom  were  non- 
residents. In  1681  the  inhabitants  declaring  themselves  sensible  of  a  defi- 
ciency in  their  original  records,  appointed  three  of  the  first-comers,  Thomas 
Leffingwell.  Thomas  Adgate.  and  John  Post,  to  search  for  the  original  dates 
of  former  acts  and  grants,  but  nothing  appears  to  have  been  done  under  this 
commission. 

May  3d,  16S4,  Christopher  Huntington,  recorder,  at  the  request  of  John 
Olmstead,  who,  he  says,  "desireth  to  have  the  primitive  date  set  to  his  record 
of  land,  which  hath  not  been  done  heretofore  for  the  want  of  an  orderly  dating 
by  the  first  recorder,  Mr.  Birchard,"  ascertains  the  true  date,  and  affixes  it 
under  his  signature — "which  date  we  find  out  of  an  antient  wrighting  which 
respects  our  purchase  interest,  and  right,  to  be  in  the  yeare  of  our  Lord  upon 
the  30th  day  of  June  1659."  Again,  December  i8th,  1694,  the  town,  after 
adverting  to  their  former  negligence  in  the  record  of  proprietary  lands, 
nominated  a  committee  of  six  men  "to  search  out  and  do  the  best  they  can 
to  find  the  names  of  first  purchasers,  and  what  estate  each  of  them  put  in, 
and  report  to  the  town." 

The  striking  fact  is  here  disclosed  that  in  little  more  than  thirty  years 
after  the  settlement,  the  number  of  the  first  proprietors,  the  amount  of  each 
one's  subscription,  and  the  names  of  all  the  purchasers,  were  not  generally 
known  and  could  not  be  determined  without  some  difficulty. 

No  report  of  the  last  commission  is  recorded.  Not  long  afterwards, 
Capt.  James  Fitch  was  employed  in  the  same  business.  He  began  a  new 
registry  of  lands,  copying  original  records  where  he  could  find  them,  stating 
bounds  as  they  then  existed,  and  affixing  dates  as  nearly  accurate  as  could 
be  ascertained.  It  is  from  this  registry  that  the  various  lists  of  the  thirty-five 
proprietors  have  been  gathered.  Home  lots,  that  seem  to  have  constituted 
original  grants,  not  having  been  alienated  or  purchased,  were  m  general  dated 
November,  1659.  But  the  whole  number  that  appears  to  be  included  under 
this  date,  either  expressly  or  by  implication,  is  thirty-eight,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  decide  which  of  these  should  be  rejected,  so  as  to  leave  the  number  just 
thirty-five. 

The  following  list  comprises  those  against  whom  not  only  nothing  is 
found  to  militate  against  their  being  ranked  as  first  proprietors,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  records  either  prove  conclusively,  or  favor  the  idea,  that  they 
belonged  to  that  class:  Rev.  James  Fitch,  Major  John  Mason.  Thomas  Adgate, 
Robert  Allvn,  William  Backus,  William  Backus,  Jr.,  John  Baldwin,  lohn 
Birchard,  Thomas  Bliss.  Morgan  Bowers.  Hugh  Calkins,"  John  Calkins.  Rich- 
ard Edgerton,  Francis  Griswold,  Christopher  Huntington.  Simon  Huntington, 
William  Hyde,  Samuel  Hyde.  Thomas  Leffingwell,  John  Olmstead,  John 
Pease,  John  Post.  Thomas  Post.  John  Reynolds,  Jonathan  Royce,  Nehemiah 
Smith,  Thomas  Tracv,  Robert  Wade. 


iff  m  s 
fil  ill 


1i^«^' 
;-^>-"" 


lIKAIi  (IK  THK  CllKliX,  XOItWlrll.  IX  Ks.lU.  BUILUIXG  UX  LEFT 
WAS  THE  (ILD  COURT  HOUSE,  AFTERWARD  THE  ACADEMY; 
THAT  OX  THE  CoRXER.  A  TAVFRX.  THE  CHURCH  EDIFICE  IS 
THE  "MEETING  HOUSE  OF  THE  ROCK,"  THE  FIRST  CHURCH 
IN   THE   SETTLEMENT. 


■i'fm 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  127 

Others  havinsj  original  home-lots  and  all  the  privileges  of  first  pro- 
prietors were:  Thomas  Bingham,  John  Bradford,  John  Gager,  Stephen  Gififord, 
Kichard  Hendy,  Thomas  Howard,  Thomas  Waterman,  John  Tracy,  Josiah 
Reed,  Richard  Wallis. 

Of  this  second  class,  Bingham,  Gififord,  Howard,  Reed,  Tracy  and  Water- 
man, were  probably  minors  when  the  plantation  commenced.  They  were  all 
married  between  1666  and  1670.  inclusive,  and  were  all  living,  except  Howard* 
in  1702,  when  a  roll  of  the  inhabitants  was  made  in  reference  to  a  division  of 
land  which  distinguished  the  surviving  first  proprietors  from  the  list  of  ac- 
cepted inhabitants.  Bingham,  Gififord,  Reed,  Tracy  and  Waterman  were 
enrolled  with  the  latter,  which  would  seem  to  settle  the  point  that  they  were 
not  original  proprietors. 

Most  of  these  names,  however,  are  necessary  in  order  to  make  up  the 
charmed  number  thirty-five.  From  the  position  these  young  men  took,  and 
the  prominence  of  their  descendants  in  the  history  of  the  town,  they  seem  to 
have  a  higher  claim  to  be  ranked  as  proprietors  than  some  of  the  earlier  class. 
Hendy  and  Wallis,  for  instance,  of  whom  we  know  little  more  than  their 
names,  and,  accepting  the  six  minors,  we  are  brought  back  to  the  time-honored 
prescriptive  number,  thirty-five.  Stephen  Backus,  another  minor,  became  a 
proprietor  in  the  right  of  his  father,  William  Backus,  who  died  soon  after 
the  settlement. 

The  Town-plot  was  laid  out  in  a  winding  vale,  which  followed  the  course 
of  the  rapid,  circuitous  Yantic,  and  was  sheltered  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
way,  on  either  side,  by  abrupt  and  rocky  but  well-wooded  hills.  A  broad 
street  or  highway  was  opened  through  this  valley,  on  each  side  of  which  the 
home-lots  were  arranged.  A  pathway  was  likewise  cleared  from  the  center 
of  the  settlement  to  the  Indian  landing  place  below  the  Falls  of  the  Yantic, 
near  the  head  of  the  Cove,  following  the  old  Indian  trail  from  Ox-hill  to 
Yantic  ford.  This  path,  called  by  the  settlers  Mill-Lane,  was  the  most  eligible 
route  by  which  the  effects  of  the  planters  could  be  conveyed.  In  some  places 
the  forests  had  been  thinned  of  their  undergrowth  by  fires,  to  afford  scope 
for  the  Indians  in  their  passionate  love  of  the  chase,  and  the  beaver  had  done 
his  part  towards  clearing  the  lowlands  and  banks  of  the  rivers.  A  few  wig- 
wams were  scattered  here  and  there,  the  occasional  abodes  of  wandering 
families  of  Indians  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  who  came  hither  for  sup- 
plies of  fish,  fruit,  or  game;  and  the  summits  of  some  of  the  hills  were 
crowned  with  disorderly  heaps  of  stones,  showing  where  some  rude  defense 
had  been  constructed  in  the  course  of  their  wars.  But  in  every  other  respect 
the  land  was  in  its  natural  wild  state.  It  was  a  laborious  task  to  cut  down 
trees,  to  burn  the  underbrush,  to  mark  out  roads  and  pathways,  to  throw 
temporary  bridges  over  the  runs  of  water,  and  to  collect  materials  for 
building. 

The  home-lots  comprised  each  a  block  of  several  acres,  and  were  in 
general  river-lands,  favorable  for  mowing,  pasture  and  tillage.  Here  lay  the 
prime  advantage  to  be  gained  by  a  change  of  residence,  the  first  proprietors 
being,  with  scarcely  a  single  exception,  agriculturists  and  farmers. 

Of  the  coming  of  the  settlers  from  Saybrook,  no  better  description  has 


128  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

been  given  than  that  of  Rev.  Dr.  Lewellyn  Pratt,  delivered  at  the  two  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding.    He  says : 

I  presume  that  I  have  been  selected  to  speak  this  opening  word  in  the 
public  services  of  this  250th  anniversary,  as  a  native  and  representative  of  the 
old  town  of  Saybrook.  I  am  to  remind  you  of  "the  rock  whence  ye  were 
hewn  and  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye  were  digged." 

As  we  all  know,  the  band  of  pilgrims  who  came  here  in  1659-60  came  for 
the  most  part  from  Saybrook.  An  independent  colony  had  been  established 
there  under  the  leadership  of  Gov.  John  Winthrop  the  younger.  It  was  a 
colony  animated  by  great  expectations.  The  importance  of  the  location  at 
the  mouth  of  the  great  river,  the  prospect  and  the  purpose  of  building  there  a 
large  city,  and  the  hope  that  many  prominent  men  would  soon  follow,  made 
it  an  attractive  spot  to  enterprising  souls.  That  settlement  was  begun  in 
1635,  the  same  year  that  Hooker  brought  his  colony  through  the  wilderness 
to  Hartford.  Lion  Gardiner,  an  engineer  who  had  seen  service  under  the 
Prince  of  Orange  in  the  Netherlands,  was  induced  by  Governor  Winthrop 
to  come  to  fortify  the  place,  to  lay  out  the  ground  for  a  city,  and  to  "make 
preparation  for  the  reception  of  men  of  quality"  who  were  soon  to  follow 
from  England.  He  remained  four  years  and  was  succeeded  by  Col.  George 
Fenwick,  and  he  in  turn  by  Maj.  John  Mason.  During  the  first  years,  trouble- 
some years  of  defence  against  the  frequent  assaults  of  the  Indians,  the  settle- 
ment had  for  its  center  and  principal  feature  the  fort  which  Gardiner  had 
built  at  the  first.  About  this  were  clustered  the  houses,  and  in  this,  in  the 
Great  Hall,  was  the  gathering  place  for  defense,  for  transaction  of  business, 
and  for  worship.  No  church  was  formed  at  first,  for  it  was  principally  a 
military  post,  and  the  chaplain  of  the  post.  Rev.  John  Higginson,  was  the 
spiritual  guide  of  the  colony.  Col.  George  Fenwick,  after  the  failure  of  "the 
men  of  quality"  who  were  expected  to  join  him  in  the  enterprise,  transferred 
his  colony,  in  1644,  to  Connecticut,  and  soon  after,  saddened  by  the  death  of 
his  wife,  Lady  Alice,  returned  with  his  children  to  England,  and  Maj.  John 
Mason  was  persuaded  to  receive  the  investment  and  to  make  Saybrook  his 
home.    There  he  remained  as  leader  for  twelve  years. 

Under  his  administration  the  colony  thrived,  and  a  more  extended  settle- 
ment was  made  north,  east  and  west.  In  1646  a  church  was  formed,  and  the 
Rev.  James  Fitch,  who  had  studied  with  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  and  who 
was  recommended  by  him,  became  pastor,  and  Thomas  Adgate  deacon.  Mr. 
Fitch's  ministry,  whom  Trumbull  speaks  of  as  a  "famous  young  gentleman" 
(he  was  in  his  twentv-fourth  year  when  he  was  settled"),  proved  to  be  a  very 
happy  and  successful  one.  Notwithstanding  the  hostilitv  of  the  Dutch  and 
the  Indians,  the  plantation  grew  by  the  moving  in  of  choice  families,  some 
of  them  from  Windsor  and  Hartford,  attracted  in  part  by  the  popularity  of 
the  j-oung  preacher.  We  have  meager  records  of  that  period,  but  it  seems 
to  have  been  one  that  promised  well  for  the  settlement,  which  was  now 
assuming  the  consequence  of  a  real  plantation  and  becoming  something  more 
than  a  military  post. 

After  a  lapse  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  years,  however,  we  find  that  a  check 
is  to  be  given  to  this  progress,  the  intimation  of  which  is  clearly  marked  by 
this  order  of  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut,  dated  May  20,  1659:  "This 
court  having  considered  the  petition  presented  by  the  inhabitants  of  Seabrook, 
doe  declare  yt  they  approve  and  consent  to  what  is  desired  by  ve  petitioners 
respecting  Mohegin,  provided  yt  within  ye  space  of  three  years  they  doe  effect 
a  Plantation  in  ye  place  prpounded." 

We  would  like  to  know  more  of  his  petition  and  of  the  list  of  names 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  129 

signed  to  it,  but  no  copy  has  been  preserved.  The  order  speaks  of  the  "in- 
habitants of  Seabrook,"  which  seems  to  imply  that  a  majority  proposed  to 
remove ;  and  the  fact  that  Mr.  Fitcli,  their  pastor,  decided  to  come  with  them, 
also  lends  color  to  that  view.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  if  the  majority  actually 
came.  Mr.  Fitch  may  have  recognized  the  greater  need  of  those  who  were 
to  go  into  new  conditions  and  who  would  require  his  experience  and  counsel 
in  the  organizations  they  must  effect.  Apparently,  it  was  not  regarded  as 
the  removal  of  the  church,  although  its  pastor  and  deacon  came — Saybrook 
has  always  dated  the  organization  of  its  church  in  1646,  and  Norwich  1660 — 
but  in  all  probability  the  younger  and  more  enterprising  of  the  colony  came, 
and  the  loss  to  Saybrook  was  most  seriously  felt.  For  several  }-ears,  till  1665, 
the  colony  and  church  that  were  left  behind  were  in  a  disheartened  state. 

Many  reasons  have  been  surmised  for  the  removal,  some  of  them  too 
frivolous  to  be  accepted,  as  that  which  has  been  so  often  repeated — that  these 
Norwich  pioneers,  with  Major  Mason  and  James  Fitch  at  their  head,  were 
"driven  out  by  the  crows  and  blackbirds  that  destroyed  their  corn."  We 
may  imagine  many  reasons :  among  them,  perhaps,  was  the  disappointment 
that  the  men  who  had  planned  to  settle  at  Saybrook  and  who  would  have 
given  peculiar  character  and  standing  to  that  colony  had  failed  to  come ;  and 
even  their  representative,  Colonel  Fenwick,  had  lost  heart  in  the  enterprise 
and  abandoned  it.  Then,  there  were  the  inducements  which  the  friendly 
Indians  here  held  out  and  the  offer  of  a  large  tract  of  land  for  settlement. 

The  peculiar  beauty  of  this  section,  with  its  wooded  hills,  its  fertile  plains 
and  running  brooks,  attracted  them.  The  pioneer  spirit  appealed  to  them, 
was  in  their  blood,  as  in  all  the  colonies  at  that  time.  They  must  go  some- 
where. So  Hooker  had  come  to  Hartford,  Pynchon  to  Springfield,  Roger 
Williams  to  Rhode  Island,  Jonathan  Brewster  to  Windsor  and  Brewster's 
Neck.  Probably  this  Norwich  colony  had  as  reasons  for  the  removal  some 
like  those  given  by  Hooker's  companv  in  their  petition  for  permission  for 
removal  to  Hartford,  which  were:  i.  "Want  of  room  where  we  are."  2.  "The 
fruitfulness  and  commodiotisness  of  Connecticut  and  the  danger  of  having 
it  possessed  by  others."  3.  "The  strong  bent  of  our  spirit  to  remove  thither." 
Probably  the  "bent  of  their  spirit"  was  the  motive  more  potent  than  either 
of  the  others  of  them  or  both  of  them  together. 

The  act  of  the  General  Court  of  J.Iay,  1659,  which  I  have  quoted,  made 
as  its  condition  that  the  settlement  must  be  made  within  the  three  years  there- 
after. Apparently  no  time  was  lost ;  and  the  advance  guard  came  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1659,  followed  by  the  remainder  of  the  company  the  next  year. 

It  was  a  valiant  and  goodly  band  of  well-to-do  folk  of  good  ancestry, 
that  had  been  trained  by  strong  leaders,  such  as  Winthrop,  Fenwick,  Gardiner, 
Mason,  Higginson  and  Fitch,  had  been  inured  to  service  in  a  new  country, 
had  already  attained  to  a  well  ordered  life  under  a  constitutional  government, 
and  were  united  under  the  restraining  and  refining  power  of  the  Christian 
faith.  This  colonr  did  not  begin  in  a  random  way,  like  so  manj^  of  the  early 
settlements  or  like  so  many  of  the  later  frontier  ventures,  by  receiving  acces- 
sions of  restless  adventurers  from  this  quarter  and  that  till  it  gradually  grew 
into  stable  form  and  condition:  it  came  upon  the  ground  a  town  and  a  church. 
The  people  were  not  a  miscellaneous  company  thrown  together  by  chance, 
needing  to  be  trained  and  assimilated,  but  an  association  carrying  their  laws 
as  well  as  their  liberties  with  them ;  not  strangers,  each  seeking  his  own 
advantage,  staking  out  his  own  claim  and  defending  it  by  arms ;  but  a  band 
of  God-fearing  men  and  women  united  into  a  brotherhood  each  bound  to  act 
for  the  com.mon  good.  They  were  not  mere  fortune  hunters  or  buccaneers 
coming  to  wrest  their  speedy  gain  and  then  retire,  but  founders  of  a  civilized 

X.L— 1-9 


I30  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

and  Christian  state  in  which  they  could  establish  homes,  and  which  they  could 
bequeath  to  their  children  as  a  priceless  inheritance.  They  were  looking 
forward  to  permanence  and  a  future,  and  they  knew  that  steady  habits,  manly 
toil  and  fine  fraternity  of  feeling  must  enter  into  that  to  make  it  stable.  All 
the  enactments  and  procedings  of  those  early  days  reveal  a  community  in 
which  good  order,  decorum  of  manners,  self-respect  and  high  ideals  prevailed. 
The  Christian  church  was  the  unifying  bond  and  the  guide  of  their  lives. 
They  were  cheered  and  strengthened  by  the  constant  charm  of  its  promises, 
and  the  rigor  of  the  wilderness  and  the  privations  of  frontier  life  were  soft- 
ened by  its  hopes.  I  do  not  know  how  much  they  thought  of  the  names  they 
were  to  transmit.  I  think  some  of  them  would  have  smiled  at  the  coat-of- 
arms  and  the  kind  of  heraldic  glory  with  which  they  have  been  crowned, 
and  would  have  been  incredulous  of  the  "genuine"  heirlooms  that  have  been 
handed  down;  but  they  did  aim  to  lead  honest  and  honorable  lives  and  to 
make  a  community  in  which  it  would  be  safe  and  wholesome  for  their  children 
to  grow. 

It  was  sifted  seed  that  was  brought  by  Winthrop  to  his  first  settlement; 
and  it  was  sifted  again  when  Fitch  and  Mason  brought  it  here.  Who  they 
were,  how  they  fared,  what  hostages  they  have  given  to  history  in  the  lines 
of  noble  descent,  we  are  to  hear  in  the  days  that  are  to  follow.  It  is  a  goodly 
story — the  orderly  life  of  those  early  days;  then,  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the 
time  when  the  nation  was  born;  then,  the  enterprise  of  this  later  time.  Nor- 
wich, proud  of  her  ancestry,  of  the  achievements  of  her  sons  and  daughters, 
of  her  well-earned  name,  and  of  her  lines  running  out  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
comes  to  her  quarter  millennium  with  devout  gratitude  to  Him  who  brought 
us  here  and  who  has  sustained  us.  .\nd  it  surely  is  not  amiss,  while,  standing 
bv  their  graves,  we  honor  the  memories  of  those  heroic  men  and  women  and 
congratulate  ourselves  on  our  heritage,  to  remind  ourselves  that 

"They  that  on  glorious  ancestors  enlarge 
Produce  their  debt  instead  of  their  discharge," 

and.  that  though  these  have  witnesses  borne  to  them  through  their  faith, 
"God  has  provided  some  better  thing  for  us,  that  apart  from  us  they  should 
not  be  made  perfect." 

Of  the  life  of  Captain  John  Mason,  Miss  Caulkins  gives  a  full  outline  so 
far  as  it  is  known : 

Every  memoir  of  Mason  is  obliged  to  take  him  up  at  the  prime  of  life, 
for  of  his  birth,  parentage,  and  early  years,  no  certain  information  has  been 
obtained.  When  he  first  appears  in  history,  he  is  in  the  English  army  under 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  fighting  in  the  Netherlands  in  behalf  of  the  Dutch 
patriots,  against  the  bigotry'  and  tyranny  of  Spain. 

He  is  supposed  to  have  emigrated  to  this  country  in  1630,  with  Mr. 
Warham's  company  that  sailed  from  Plymouth,  England,  March  20th,  and 
arrived  at  Nantasket  May  30th  of  that  year.  But  this  cannot  be  stated  with 
absolute  certainty,  as  he  has  not  been  actually  traced  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean  before  December,  1632,  when  he  was  engaged  in  a  cruise  with  John 
Gallop,  under  a  commission  from  the  Governor  and  Magistrates  of  Massa- 
chusetts to  search  for  a  pirate  called  Dixy  Bull,  who  had  for  some  time 
annoyed  the  coast  with  petty  depredation.  He  was  then  called  Lieutenant 
Mason,  but  soon  afterward  attained  the  rank  of  captain.  In  1634  he  was  one 
of  a  committee  appointed  to  plan  the  fortifications  of  Boston  Harbor,  and  was 
specially  employed  in  raising  a  battery  upon  Castle  Island. 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  131 

In  March,  1635,  he  was  the  representative  of  Dorchester  to  the  General 
Court,  but  in  the  latter  part  of  the  same  year  or  early  in  the  next,  removed 
with  the  major  part  of  Mr.  Warham's  people  to  the  Connecticut  Valley.  Here 
the  emigrants  planted  themselves  on  the  western  bank  of  Connecticut  river, 
above  Hartford,  and  founded  the  pleasant  and  honorable  town  of  Windsor. 

With  the  residence  of  Captain  Mason  at  Windsor,  all  the  stirring  scenes 
of  the  Pequot  war  are  connected.  This  was  the  great  event  of  the  early  his- 
tory of  Connecticut,  and  the  overshadowing  exploit  of  Mason's  life.  He  was 
instrumental  in  originating  the  expedition,  formed  the  plan,  followed  out  its 
details,  fought  its  battles,  clinched,  as  it  were  with  iron  screws,  its  results, 
and  wrote  its  history.  This  war  was  begun  and  ended  when  Connecticut  had 
only  250  inhabitants,  comprised  principally  in  the  three  towns  of  Hartford, 
Wethersfield  and  Windsor.  Out  of  these  Mason  gathered  a  band  of  seventy 
men,  and,  passing  down  Connecticut  river,  landed  in  the  Narragansett  coun- 
try, and  being  joined  by  a  band  of  friendly  Indians,  marched  directly  into  the 
heart  of  the  hostile  territory,  assailed  the  Pequots  in  their  strongest  fortress, 
destroyed  it,  laid  waste  their  dwellings,  and  killed  nearly  half  of  the  whole 
nation.  This  expedition  occupied  three  weeks  and  two  days.  The  skill, 
prudence,  firmness  and  active  courage  displayed  by  Mason  in  this  exploit 
were  such  as  to  gain  him  a  high  standing  among  military  commanders.  From 
this  period  he  became  renowned  as  an  Indian  fighter,  and  stood  forth  a  buckler 
of  defence  to  the  exposed  colonists,  but  a  trembling  and  a  terror  to  the  wild 
people  of  the  wilderness. 

In  1637  he  was  appointed  by  the  General  Court  the  chief  military  officer 
of  the  colony,  his  duty  being  "to  train  the  military  men"  of  the  several  plan- 
tations ten  davs  in  every  year :  salary,  forty  pounds  per  annum.  At  a  later 
period  (1654)  he  was  authorized  to  assemble  all  the  train-bands  of  the  colony 
once  in  two  years  for  a  general  review.  The  office  was  equivalent  to  that  of 
major-general.  He  retained  it  through  the  remainder  of  his  life,  thirty-five 
years,  and  during  that  time  appears  to  have  been  the  only  person  in  the  colony 
with  the  rank  and  title  of  major. 

When  the  fort  at  Saybrook  was  transferred  by  Colonel  Fenwick  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  colony.  Mason  was  appointed  to  receive  the  investment, 
and  at  the  special  request  of  the  inhabitants  he  removed  to  that  place  and 
was  made  commander  of  the  station.  Here  he  had  his  home  for  the  next 
twelve  years. 

The  people  of  New  Haven  were  not  entirely  satisfied  with  their  location, 
and  formed  a  design  of  removing  to  a  tract  of  land  which  they  had  purchased 
on  the  Delaware  river.  In  1651  they  proposed  this  matter  to  Captain  Mason, 
urgently  requesting  him  to  remove  with  them,  and  take  the  management  of 
the  companv.  This  invitation  is  a  proof  of  the  high  opinion  his  contempo- 
raries had  formed  both  of  his  civil  and  military  talents.  The  ofTers  they 
made  him  were  liberal,  and  he  was  on  the  point  of  accepting,  when  the 
Legislature  of  Connecticut  interfered,  entreating  him  not  to  leave  the  colony, 
and  declaring  that  they  could  by  no  means  consent  to  his  removal.  Finding 
that  his  presence  was  considered  essential  to  the  safety  of  Connecticut,  he 
declined  the  offers  of  New  Haven.  If  he  went,  there  was  no  one  left  who  could 
make  his  place  good;  neither  had  New  Haven  any  person  in  reserve,  who 
could  fill  the  station  designed  for  him,  and  therefore  the  projected  settlement 
never  took  place.  The  active  disposition  of  Mason,  however,  never  lacked 
employment.  There  was  scarcely  a  year  in  which  he  was  not  obliged  to  go 
on  some  expedition  among  the  Indian  tribes,  to  negotiate,  or  to  fight,  or  to 
pacify  their  mutual  quarrels.  At  one  time,  his  .faithful  friend  Uncas  was  in 
danger  from  a  powerful  league  of  the  other  tribes,  but  the  seasonable  prepara- 


132  NEW  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

tions  of  Alason  for  his  relief  frightened  the  foe  into  peace  and  submission. 
At  another  time  he  was  sent  with  arms  and  men  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Long  Island  Indians,  against  Ninigrate,  the  powerful  sachem  of  the  Nahan- 
ticks,  who  threatened  them  with  extirpation.  This  service  he  gallantly  per- 
formed ;  but  only  two  years  afterwards  was  compelled  to  appear  again  on  that 
Island  with  a  band  of  soldiers  in  order  to  chastise  the  very  Indians,  mischiev- 
ous and  ungrateful,  whom  he  had  before  relieved. 

\\'e  find  him,  at  the  same  time,  and  for  several  years  in  succession,  hold- 
ing various  public  offices,  all  arduous  and  important.  He  was  Indian  agent, 
Indian  umpire,  and  the  counselor  of  the  government  in  all  Indian  concerns; 
captain  of  the  fort,  justice  of  the  peace,  and  empowered  to  hold  courts  as  a 
judge ;  a  member  likewise  of  two  deliberative  bodies,  the  Connacticut  Legis- 
latMre  and  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies ;  major-general 
of  the  militia  at  home,  and  the  acting  commander  in  all  expeditions  abroad. 
In  1660  he  was  chosen  deputy  governor,  to  which  office  he  was  annually 
re-elected  for  eight  years,  five  under  the  old  form  and  three  under  the  king's 
charter,  which  united  Connecticut  with  New  Haven.  The  same  year  he  was 
actively  employed,  in  conjunction  with  ^Ir.  Fitch  and  others,  in  effecting  the 
settlement  of  Norwich,  and  also  in  purchasing  of  the  Mohegans  a  large  tract 
of  land,  in  behalf  of  the  colony.  At  this  time,  also,  for  nearly  two  years,  he 
performed  all  the  duties  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  colony — Winthrop,  the 
governor,  being  absent  in  England,  engaged  in  negotiations  respecting  the 
charter. 

Thus  the  life  of  !Mason  on  this  continent  may  be  distributed  into  four 
portions.  The  first  was  given  to  Dorchester,  and  the  remainder  in  nearly 
equal  parts  to  the  three  towns  in  Connecticut  that  he  assisted  in  planting — 
lieutenant  and  captain  at  Dorchester,  five  and  a  half  years ;  conqueror  of  the 
Pequots,  magistrate  and  major  at  Windsor,  twelve  years :  captain  of  the  fort, 
and  commissioner  of  the  United  Colonies  at  Saybrook,  twelve ;  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor and  Assistant  at  Norwich,  twelve.  He  was  not  chosen  Deputy  Governor 
after  1668,  but  continued  in  duty  as  an  Assistant,  and  was  present  for  the 
last  time  at  the  election  in  ^lay,  1671. 

Of  the  original  band  of  Norwich  purchasers,  Mason  was  one  of  the 
earliest  laid  in  the  grave.  He  died  Januarj^  30.  1671-72.  According  to  Trum- 
bull, he  was  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  his  age.  His  last  hours  were  cheered 
by  the  prayers  and  counsels  of  his  beloved  pastor  and  son-in-law.  Mr.  Fitch. 
Two  years  before,  he  had  requested  his  fellow-citizens  to  excuse  him  from  all 
further  public  services  on  account  of  his  age  and  infirmity ;  so  that  the  close 
of  his  life,  though  overshadowed  by  suffering  from  an  acute  disease,  was 
unharrassed  bj^  care  and  responsibilitv.  There  is  no  coeval  record  that  points 
out  his  burial-place,  but  uniform  tradition  and  current  belief  in  the  neighbor- 
hood from  generation  to  generation  leave  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  was 
interred  where  other  inhabitants  of  that  generation  were  laid,  that  is,  in  the 
Post  and  Gager  burial  ground,  or  first  cemetery  of  Norwich. 

From  early  times,  Norwich  commerce  prospered,  since  it  was  the  natural 
outlet  for  a  considerable  farming  region  and,  at  the  same  time,  had  an  excel- 
lent position  at  the  head  of  the  Thames.  Live  stock,  provisions,  lumber,  were 
exchanged  at  the  West  Indies  for  sugar,  molasses  and  rum. 

.Shortly  after  the  Revolution,  Norwich  citizens  owned  over  forty  vessels 
engaged  in  commerce.  From  the  "Norwich  Packet"  (editor  Jonathan  Trum- 
bull), we  get  some  idea  of  the  business  in  the  town.  The  merchants  com- 
bined shrewdness  with  industry.    The  adventurous  spirit  of  the  early  settlers 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  133 

was  not  lacking-.  New  industries  were  starting  up.  The  original  settlers  had 
laid  out  their  plots  "up  town,"  two  miles  from  the  "landing."  But  with  the 
development  of  commerce  and  industrj^  came  an  increase  in  the  activity  of 
the  people  of  "Chelsea"  (the  landing).  Business  interests  came  to  be  stronger 
than  the  farming  interests.  The  city  of  Norwich,  with  its  center  near  the 
landing,  had  been  incorporated  in  1784  as  a  first  step  in  this  growth,  and  by 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  "Norwichtown"  had  become  one  of  its 
suburbs. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War,  Norwich,  while  not  subject  to  imme- 
diate danger,  as  was  New  London,  was  nevertheless  very  active  in  assisting 
the  Revolutionary  troops  and  in  furnishing  its  own  quota.  As  an  interesting 
extract  we  quote  from  Miss  Caulkins : 

Detachments  from  the  Continental  army  frequently  passed  through  Nor- 
wich. In  1778  a  body  of  French  troops,  on  the  route  from  Providence  to  the 
South,  halted  there  for  ten  or  fifteen  days,  on  account  of  sickness  among 
them.  They  had  their  tents  spread  upon  the  plain,  while  the  sick  were 
quartered  in  the  court-house.  About  twenty  died  and  were  buried  each 
side  of  the  lane  that  led  into  the  old  burying-yard.  No  stones  were  set  up, 
and  the  ground  was  soon  smoothed  over  so  as  to  leave  no  trace  of  the  narrow 
tenements  below. 

General  Washington  passed  through  Norwich  in  June,  1775,  on  his  way 
to  Cambridge.  It  is  probable  that  he  came  up  the  river  in  a  packet-boat  with 
his  horses  and  attendants.  He  spent  the  night  at  the  Landing,  and  the  next 
day  pursued  his  journey  eastward.  In  April,  1776,  after  the  evacuation  of 
Boston  by  the  enemy,  the  American  troops  being  ordered  to  New  York,  came 
on  in  detachments  by  land,  and  crossing  the  .Shetucket  at  the  old  fording- 
place  below  Greenville,  embarked  at  Norwich  and  New  London  to  finish  the 
route  bv  water.  General  Washington  accompanied  one  of  the  parties  to 
Norwich  and  met  Governor  Trumbull  by  appointment  at  Col.  Jedediah  Hunt- 
ington's, where  they  dined  together,  and  the  general  that  evening  resumed 
his  route  to  New  York,  going  down  to  New  London  by  land. 

The  inhabitants  also  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  Lafayette,  Steuben, 
Pulaski,  and  other  distinguished  foreigners  in  our  service.  There  was  some 
who  long  remembered  the  appearance  of  the  noble  Lafayette,  as  he  passed 
through  the  place  on  his  way  to  Newport.  He  had  been  there  before,  and 
needed  no  guide ;  his  aides  and  a  small  body-guard  were  with  him,  and  he 
rode  up  to  the  door  of  his  friend,  Col.  Jedediah  Huntington,  in  a  quick  gallop. 
He  wore  a  blue  military  coat,  but  no  vest  and  no  stockings;  his  boots  being 
short,  his  leg  was  consequently  left  bare  for  a  considerable  space  below  the 
knee.  The  speed  with  which  he  was  traveling  and  the  great  heat  of  the 
weather  were  sufficient  excuses  for  this  negligence.  He  took  some  refresh- 
ment and  hastened  forward. 

At  another  period  he  passed  through  with  a  detachment  of  two  thousand 
men  under  his  command,  and  encamped  them  for  one  night  upon  the  plain. 
In  the  morning,  before  their  departure,  he  invited  Mr.  Strong,  the  pastor  of 
the  place,  to  pray  with  them,  which  he  did,  the  troops  being  arranged  in  three 
sides  of  a  hollow  square. 

Nearly  fifty  years  afterwards,  August  21,  1824,  the  venerable  Lafayette 
again  passed  through  Norwich.  Some  old  people,  who  remembered  him, 
embraced  him  and  wept ;  the  general  wept  also. 

At  one  time  during  the  war  the  Duke  de  Lauzun's  regiment  of  hussars 


134  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

was  quartered  in  Lebanon,  ten  miles  from  Norwich.  Col.  Jedediah  Hunting- 
ton invited  the  officers  to  visit  him,  and  prepared  a  handsome  entertainment 
for  them.  They  made  a  superb  appearance  as  they  drove  into  town,  being 
young,  tall,  vivacious  men,  with  handsome  faces  and  a  noble  air,  mounted 
upon  horses  bravely  caparisoned.  The  two  Dillons,  brothers,  one  a  major 
and  the  other  a  captain  in  the  regiment,  were  particularly  distinguished  for 
their  fine  forms  and  expressive  features.  One  or  both  of  these  Dillons  suffered 
death  from  the  guillotine  during  the  French  Revolution. 

Lauzun  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished  but  unprincipled  noblemen  of 
his  time.  He  was  celebrated  for  his  handsome  person,  his  liberality,  wit, 
bravery,  but  more  than  all  for  his  profligacy.  He  was  born  in  1747,  inherited 
great  wealth  and  high  titles,  and  spent  all  his  early  years  in  alternate  scenes 
of  dissipation  and  traveling.  He  engaged  in  no  public  enterprise  till  he  came 
to  America  and  took  part  in  the  Revolutionary  contest.  The  motives  which 
actuated  this  voluptuous  nobleman  to  this  undertaking  are  not  understood, 
very  probably  the  thirst  for  adventure  and  personal  friendship  for  Lafayette. 
He  had  run  the  career  of  pleasure  to  such  an  extent  that  he  was  perhaps 
willing  te  pause  awhile  and  restore  the  energy  of  his  satiated  taste.  Certain 
it  is  that  he  embarked  in  the  cause  of  the  Americans  with  ardor,  bore  priva- 
tions with  good  temper,  and  made  himself  very  popular  by  his  hilarity  and 
generous  expenditure. 

After  Lauzun  returned  to  Europe  he  became  intimate  with  Talleyrand, 
and  accompanied  him  on  a  mission  to  England  in  1792,  where  one  of  his 
familiar  associates  was  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  George  IV.  On  the 
death  of  his  uncle,  the  Duke  de  Biron,  he  succeeded  to  the  title,  quarreled  with 
the  court,  and  became  a  partisan  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Afterwards  he 
served  against  the  Vendeans,  but  being  accused  of  secretly  favoring  them, 
was  condemned,  and  executed  the  last  day  of  the  year  1793.  Such  was  the 
future  stormy  career  of  this  celebrated  nobleman,  who  as  already  mentioned, 
in  the  midst  of  friends  and  subordinates,  enjoyed  the  banquet  made  for  him 
by  Colonel  Huntington.  After  dinner  the  whole  party  went  out  into  the  yard 
in  front  of  the  house  and  made  the  air  ring  with  huzzas  for  liberty.  Numerous 
loune:ers  had  gathered  around  the  fence  to  get  a  sight  of  these  interesting 
foreigners,  with  whom  they  conversed  in  very  good  English,  and  exhorted 
to  live  free  or  die  for  liberty. 

As  to  the  effects  of  the  Revolution  on  Norwich,  Miss  Caulkins  says: 

After  recovering  from  the  first  stunning  blow  of  the  Revolution,  the 
inhabitants  of  Norwich  were  not  only  alert  in  turning  their  attention  to  various 
industrial  pursuits,  but  engaged  also  in  the  brilliant  chance  game  of  privateer- 
ing. The  war,  therefore,  while  it  exhausted  the  strength  and  resources  of 
neighboring  towns  that  lay  exposed  upon  the  seacoast,  acted  like  a  spur  to 
the  enterprise  of  Norwich.  New  London,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  was 
depressed  in  all  her  interests,  kept  in  continual  alarm,  and  finally,  by  the 
blazing  torch  of  the  enemy,  almost  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth;  but 
Norwich,  securely  seated  at  the  head  of  the  river,  defended  by  her  hills  and 
nourished  by  her  valleys,  planting  and  reaping  without  fear  of  invasion  or 
loss,  not  only  built  new  shops  and  dwelling-houses,  and  engaged  with  spirit 
and  success  in  a  variety  of  new  manufactures,  but  entered  into  ship-building, 
and  boldly  sent  out  her  vessels  to  bring  in  spoils  from  the  ocean. 

In  1781  and  1782  the  town  was  overflowing  with  merchandise,  both  trop- 
ical and  European.  New  mercantile  firms  were  established — Daniel  Rodman, 
Samuel  Woodbridge,  Lynde  McCurdy,  and  others — and  lavish  varieties  of 
fancy  texture,  as  well  as  the  substantial  products  of  almost  every  climate,  were 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  135 

offered  for  sale.  The  shelves  and  counters  of  the  fashionable  class  of  shops 
displayed  such  articles  as  superfine  broadcloths,  men's  silk  hose,  India  silks, 
blonde  lace,  Damascus  silks,  taffetas,  satins.  Persians,  and  velvets,  gauzes, 
and  chintzes.     These  goods  were  mostly  obtained  by  successful  privateering. 

Another  class  of  merchandise,  generally  of  a  cheaper  kind,  and  not  dealt 
in  by  honorable  traders,  but  covertly  offered  for  sale  in  various  places  or 
distributed  by  pedlers,  was  obtained  by  secret  and  unlawful  intercourse  with 
the  enemy. 

The  coast  of  Connecticut  being  entirely  girdled  by  Long  Island  and  New 
York,  and  the  British  and  Tories  having  these  wholly  under  their  control, 
it  was  very  difficult  to  prevent  the  secret  intercourse  and  traffic  of  the  two 
parties  through  the  Sound.  In  the  latter  years  of  the  war  especially,  a  corrupt, 
underhand,  smuggling  trade  prevailed  to  a  great  extent,  which  was  embold- 
ened by  the  indifference  or  connivance  of  the  local  authorities,  and  stimulated 
by  the  readiness  of  people  to  purchase  cheap  goods  without  asking  from 
whence  they  came.  Remittances  for  these  goods  must  be  made  in  coin, 
therefore  they  were  sold  only  for  cash,  which,  finding  its  way  back  to  the 
enemy's  lines,  impoverished  the  country.  Thus  the  traffic  operated  against 
agriculture  and  manufactures,  against  honest  labor  and  lawful  trade.  More- 
over, it  nullified  the  laws  and  brought  them  into  contempt. 

Against  this  illicit  traffic  a  strong  association  was  formed  at  Norwich 
in  July,  1782.  The  company  bound  themselves  by  solemn  pledges  of  life, 
fortune  and  honor  to  support  the  civil  authority;  to  hold  no  intercourse, 
social  or  mercantile,  with  persons  detected  in  evading  the  laws;  to  furnish 
men  and  boats  for  keeping  watch  in  suspected  places,  and  to  search  out  and 
break  up  all  deposits  of  smuggled  goods ;  such  goods  to  be  seized,  sold,  and 
the  avails  devoted  to  charitable  purposes. 

The  vigorous  manner  in  which  this  company  began  to  carry  out  their 
principles  caused  great  commotion  in  the  ranks  of  the  guiltv  parties.  Sus- 
pected persons  suddenly  disappeared ;  sales  were  postponed ;  goods  which 
before  had  been  openly  exposed  withdrew  into  cellars  and  meal-chests,  or 
were  concealed  in  barns  under  the  hay,  and  in  hollow  trees,  thickets,  and 
ravines.  Several  seizures  were  made  during  the  season,  but  the  treatv  of 
peace  soon  put  an  end  to  this  clandestine  traffic,  and  the  association  had  but 
a  brief  existence.  Its  object,  however,  was  creditable  to  the  patriotism  and 
efficiency  of  the  inhabitants,  and  a  list  of  the  signers  gives  us  the  names  of 
sixty-eight  prominent  men  who  were  on  the  stage  of  life  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  and  all  within  the  bounds  of  the  present  town. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  members  of  the  Association  against  Illicit 
Trade:  Samuel  Abbott,  Elijah  Backus.  Ephriam  Bill,  Jonathan  Boardman, 
John  M.  Breed,  Shubael  Breed,  Samuel  Capron,  Eliphalet  Carew,  Joseph 
Carew,  Simeon  Carew,  Thomas  Coit,  William  Coit,  John  Crary,  Jacob 
De  Witt,  IMichael  Dumont,  Thomas  Fanning,  Jabez  Fitch,  Joseph  Gale, 
Joseph  Peck,  Andrew  Perkins,  Jabez  Perkins,  Jabez  Perkins,  Jr.,  Joseph  Per- 
kins, Joseph  Perkins,  Jr.,  Erastus  Perkins,  Hezekiah  Perkins,  Levi  Perkins, 
Daniel  Rodman,  Theophilus  Rogers,  Zabdiel  Rogers,  Ransford  Rose,  Joseph 
Rowland,  Andrew  Huntington,  Eliphalet  Huntington,  Jonathan  Huntington, 
Joshua  FTuntington,  Levi  Huntington,  Simeon  Huntington,  William  Hubbard, 
Russell  Hubbard  &  Son,  Ebenezer  Jones.  Joshua  Lathrop,  Rufus  Lathrop, 
Christopher  Leffingwell,  Benajah  Leffingwell,  Jonathan  Lester,  Elihu  Marven, 
John  McCall,  Lynde  McCurdy,  Seth  Miner,  Thomas  Mumford,  Nathaniel 
Njles,  Robert  Niles,  Timothy  Parker,  Asa  Peabody,  Nathaniel  P.  Peabody, 
Andre  Tracy,  Jr.,  Mundator  Tracy,  Samuel  Tracy,  Asa  Waterman,  Samuel 
Wheat,  Joseph  Whitmarsh,  Benajah  Williams,  Joseph  Williams,  Jacob  Witter, 


136  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Dudley  Woodbridge,   Samuel  Woodbridge,  Alexander  Youngs. 

In  January,  1781,  the  inhabitants  were  divided  into  forty  classes  to  raise 
forty  soldiers,  which  was  their  quota  for  the  Continental  arni}^;  and  again 
into  twenty  classes  for  a  State  quota  to  serve  at  Horseneck  and  elsewhere. 
A  list  of  persons  in  each  class  was  made  out,  and  each  taxed  in  due  proportion 
for  the  pay  and  fitting  out  of  one  recruit,  whom  they  were  to  procure ;  two 
shirts,  two  pairs  of  woolen  stockings,  shoes,  and  mittens  were  requisite  for 
every  soldier ;  arms  and  uniforms  were  furnished  by  the  State  or  country. 
Each  soldier's  family  was  in  charge  of  a  committee  to  see  that  they  were 
supplied  with  the  necessaries  of  life,  for  which  the  soldier's  wages  to  a  certain 
amount  were  pledged.  The  whole  number  of  classes  this  j'ear  to  produce 
clothing  was  sixty-six.     In  1782  only  thirty-three  classes  were  required. 

In  1783,  instructions  were  given  to  the  representatives  to  use  their  influ- 
ence with  the  Assembly  to  obtain  a  remonstrance  against  the  five  years'  pay 
granted  by  Congress  to  the  officers  of  the  Continental  army.  The  manifesto 
of  the  town  on  this  subject  was  fiery,  dictatorial,  and  extravagant.  A  few 
paragraphs  will  show  in  strong  relief  the  characteristics  of  the  people — 
jealous  of  their  rights,  quick  to  take  alarm  and  sensitively  watchful  over  their 
cherished  liberties: 

Where  is  the  free  son  of  America  that  ever  had  it  in  idea  when  adopting 
the  Articles  of  Confederation  to  have  pensions  bestowed  on  those  characters 
(if  any  such  there  be)  whose  virtue  could  not  hold  them  in  service  without 
such  rewards  over  and  above  the  contract  which  first  engaged  them? 

For  a  free  people,  just  rising  out  of  a  threatening  slavery  into  free 
shining  prospects  of  a  most  glorious  peace  and  independence,  now  to  be 
taxed  without  their  consent  to  support  and  maintain  a  large  number  of 
gentlemen  as  pensioners  in  a  time  of  universal  peace  is.  in  our  view,  uncon- 
stitutional and  directly  in  opposition  to  the  sentiment  of  the  States  at  large, 
and  was  one  great  spoke  in  the  wheel  which  moved  at  first  our  late  struggle 
with  our  imperious  and  tyrannical  foes. 

Further  instructions  were  given  at  the  same  time  to  the  representatives 
to  urge  upon  the  Assembly  the  necessity  of  keeping  a  watchful  eye  upon  the 
proceedings  of  Congress,  to  see  that  they  did  not  exceed  the  powers  vested 
in  them,  and  to  appoint  a  committee  at  every  session  to  take  into  consider- 
ation the  journals  of  Congress,  and  approve  or  disapprove,  applaud  or  censure 
the  conduct  of  the  delegates. 

Norwich  has  the  questionable  distinction  of  being  the  birthplace  of 
Benedict  Arnold.     We  quote  from  Dr.  Kurd's  History: 

The  painful  task  now  devolves  upon  the  writer  to  chronicle  some  of  the 
leading  events  in  the  career  of  one  whose  baseness  has  been  unequaled  since 
the  day  that  his  prototype  betrayed  his  master  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver. 
The  faithful  historian  will  be  just  to  all ;  hence  no  attempt  will  be  made  to 
remove  the  stain  which  has  long  tarnished  the  history  of  this  fair  section 
of  country.  Benedict  Arnold  descended  from  an  honorable  Rhode  Island 
family,  where  one  of  his  ancestors,  bearing  the  same  name,  held  the  office  of 
Governor  for  fifteen  years.    Two  brothers  of  this  family,  Benedict  and  Ol'ver, 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  137 

removed  from  Newport  to  Norwich  in  1730.  The  elder  Benedict,  the  father 
)f  the  traitor,  soon  became  engaged  in  business,  and  not  long  after  his  arrival 
in  Norwich,  married  Mrs.  Hannah  King,  whose  maiden  name  was  Lathrop. 
Benedict,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  born  in  Norwich,  January  3,  1741. 
Early  in  life  he  was  apprenticed  to  Dr.  Lathrop,  a  druggist  in  Norwich,  with 
whom  he  remained  during  his  minority.  He  subsequently  embarked  in  the 
same  business  in  New  Haven,  and  while  there  became  the  captain  of  a  com- 
pan}-  of  militia.  After  the  battle  at  Lexington  he  made  a  hasty  march  to 
Cambridge  at  the  head  of  his  company,  and  volunteered  his  services  to  the 
Massachusetts  Committee  of  Safety.  With  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  Con- 
tinental army,  he  joined  Ethan  Allen  and  assisted  in  the  taking  of  Ticon- 
deroga  in  May,  1775.  In  the  expedition  against  Quebec,  in  the  autumn  and 
winter  of  1775,  he  took  a  leading  part.  Having  been  wounded  at  Quebec 
and  at  Saratoga,  his  disability  was  of  a  character  to  render  him  unfit  for 
active  field  service,  and  he  was  consequently,  by  Washington,  placed  in 
command  at  Philadelphia  after  the  place  had  been  evacuated  by  Clinton 
in  T778.  He  was  at  this  date  a  major-general  in  the  Continental  army.  While 
in  Philadelphia  he  lived  in  a  stjde  far  above  his  means,  and  his  haughty 
and  overbearing  manner  involved  him  in  a  quarrel  with  the  authorities  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  accused  him  before  Congress  of  abusing  his  official  posi- 
tion and  misusing  the  public  funds.  After  a  long  delay  he  was  tried  by  a 
court-martial  and  was  sentenced  to  be  reprimanded  by  the  commander-in- 
chief.  Washington  performed  this  disagreeable  task  as  delicately  as  possible, 
but  did  not  lose  his  confidence  in  Arnold.  While  in  Philadelphia,  Arnold 
married  the  daughter  of  Judge  Shippen,  a  Tory,  which  connection  enabled 
him  to  communicate  without  discovery  with  the  British  officers.  He  opened 
a  correspondence  with  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  signing  himself  "Gustavus." 

In  the  meantime,  at  his  earnest  solicitation,  he  was  appointed  by  Wash- 
ington, in  August,  1780,  to  the  command  of  West  Point,  the  strongest  and 
most  important  fortress  in  America.  He  sought  this  command  with  the 
deliberate  intention  of  betraying  the  post  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  In 
compliance  with  a  previous  understanding,  Arnold  and  Major  Andre  met  at 
Haverstraw,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Hudson,  September  22,  1780,  and  arrange- 
ments were  fully  completed  for  an  easy  conquest  of  the  fortress  by  the 
English. 

On  his  return  to  the  city  of  New  York,  Andre  was  arrested  as  a  spy  at 
Tarrytown,  was  tried  by  court-martial,  and  sentenced  to  be  executed  by  hang- 
ing. He  suffered  the  penalty  of  his  crime  October  2,  1780.  When  it  became 
known  to  Arnold  that  Andre  had  been  arrested,  he  fled  from  West  Point  in 
the  utmost  haste,  and  in  his  flight  took  passage  to  New  York  City  in  the 
"Vulture,"  a  British  sloop-of-war.  He  was  immediately  made  a  brigadier- 
general  in  the  British  service,  which  rank  he  preserved  throughout  the  war 
as  a  stipulated  reward  for  his  treachery. 

Norwich  had  one  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  many 
men  famous  in  Revolutionary  times.  General  Jedediah  Huntington  was  a 
leader  in  the  country. 

He  was  born.  August  4.  1743.  in  Norwich,  where  he  was  prepared  for  a 
collegiate  course,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  College  with  distinguished  honor 
in  the  class  of  1763.  The  high  social  rank  of  his  family  is  indicated  by  the 
order  of  his  name  on  the  college  catalogue,  it  being  the  second  in  the  list  of 
his  class,  above  that  of  John  Quincy.  The  master's  degree  was  also  con- 
ferred on  him  by  Yale  College  in  1770.    After  leaving  college  he  became  asso- 


138  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

ciated  with  his  father  in  commercial  pursuits,  and  was  engaged  in  this  busi- 
ness when  the  Revolutionary  cloud  began  to  lower,  and  he  soon  became 
noted  as  a  Son  of  Liberty,  and  an  active  captain  of  the  militia.  The  bursting 
of  the  storm  found  him  ready,  and  just  one  week  from  the  firing  of  the  first 
shot  at  Lexington  he  reported  at  Cambridge  with  a  regiment  under  his  com- 
mand, and  was  detailed  to  occupy  Dorchester  Heights.  After  the  evacuation 
of  Boston  by  the  British  he  marched  with  his  army  to  New  York,  and  enter- 
tained the  commander-in-chief  on  the  way  at  Norwich. 

During  the  year  1776  he  was  at  New  York.  Kingsbridge,  Northcastle. 
Sidmun's  Bridge,  and  other  posts.  In  April  of  that  year  he  assisted  in  repuls- 
ing the  British  at  Danbury,  Connecticut,  assailing  the  enemy's  rear,  and  effect- 
ing a  junction  with  his  fellow-townsman,  Benedict  Arnold. 

In  July  he  joined  General  Putnam  at  Peekskill  with  all  the  Continental 
troops  which  he  could  collect,  and  in  the  following  September  was  ordered 
to  join  the  main  army  near  Philadelphia,  where  he  remained  at  headquarters, 
at  Worcester,  Whippin,  Whitemarsh,  Gulph  Hills,  etc.  In  November,  on 
receiving  information  of  the  enemy's  movement  upon  Red  Bank,  he  was  de- 
tached with  his  brigade,  among  other  troops,  to  its  relief,  but  Cornwallis  had 
anticipated  them.  Having  shared  the  hardships  of  his  companions  in  arms 
at  Valley  Forge  through  the  winter  of  1777-78,  he,  together  with  Colonel 
Wigglesworth,  was  in  March  appointed  by  the  commander-in-chief  "to  aid 
General  McDougal  in  inquiring  into  the  loss  of  Forts  Montgomery  and  Clin- 
ton, in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  into  the  conduct  of  the  principal  officers 
commanding  these  posts."  In  May  he  was  ordered  with  his  brigade  to  the 
North  river,  and  was  stationed  successively  at  Camp  Reading,  Highlands, 
Neilson's  Point,  etc.  In  July  he  was  a  member  of  the  court-martial  which 
tried  Gen.  Charles  Lee  for  misconduct  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  and  in 
September  he  sat  upon  the  court  of  inquiry  to  whom  was  referred  the  case 
of  Major  Andre.  In  December,  1780,  his  was  the  only  Connecticut  brigade 
that  remained  in  the  service.  On  the  loth  of  May,  1783,  at  a  meeting  of 
officers,  he  was  appointed  one  of  a  committee  of  four  to  draft  a  plan  of  organ- 
ization, which  resulted  in  their  reporting  on  the  13th  the  constitution  of  the 
famous  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.  On  the  24th  of  June,  Washington  writes 
that  the  army  was  "reduced  to  a  competent  garrison  for  West  Point;  Patter- 
son, Huntington  and  Greaton  being  the  only  brigadiers  now  left  with  it,  be- 
sides the  adjutant-general."  General  Huntington  was  also  one  of  the  founders 
of  West  Point  Academy. 

On  returning  from  the  army  he  resumed  business  in  his  native  town,  and 
was  successively  chosen  sherif?  of  the  county.  State  treasurer,  and  delegate 
to  the  State  Convention  which  adopted  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
In  1789  he  was  appointed  by  President  Washington  collector  of  customs  at 
New  London,  then  the  port  of  entry  for  Eastern  Connecticut  and  Connecticut 
River,  which  office  he  retained  under  four  administrations,  and  resigned 
shortly  before  his  death. 

Following  the  Revolutionary  War,  Norwich  developed  the  West  India 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  139 

Trade,  but  after  the  War  of  1812  came  more  and  more  to  develop  its  water 
power  and  went  into  manufacturing.  For  the  Civil  War  it  furnished  over 
1,400  men. 

The  following  letters,  sent  for  the  200th  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of 
Norwich,  give  a  vivid  picture  of  life  in  Norwich  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

(From  Rev.  Erastus  Wentworth,  Missionary  to  China.) 

Foo-Chow,  China,  June  15th,  1859. 

Gentlemen: — After  looking  forward  with  pleasurable  anticipations  for 
many  years  to  personal  participation  in  the  celebration  of  the  bi-centennial 
birthday  of  Norwich,  the  place  associated  with  my  earliest  and  dearest  recol- 
lections, I  find  myself,  on  the  eve  of  that  event,  sixteen  thousand  miles 
away,  and  effectually  debarred  from  the  intellectual  treats  and  social  festivi- 
ties promised  by  that  occasion.  It  will  be  some  compensation  for  the  disap- 
pointment, and  no  slight  gratification,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  contribute  by 
letter  a  trifle  to  the  interest  of  the  family  gathering.  It  will  not,  at  such  a 
time,  be  deemed  egotistical  in  me  to  state  that  I  spent  the  first  eighteen  years 
of  my  life  in  Norwich ;  that  my  father  was  born  there  seventy  years,  and  my 
grandfather  a  hundred  and  seven  years  ago;  and  that  my  family  name,  by 
no  means  an  obscure  one,  in  either  English  or  American  history,  has  stood 
on  the  town  records  for  one  hundred  and  eighty,  out  of  the  two  hundred 
years  you  are  now  assembled  to  commemorate. 

Old  Norwich ! — Who  that  has  been  a  denizen  of  the  place,  especially  in 
early  youth,  can  ever  forget  its  winding  valleys  and  rugged  hills ;  its  stony 
pastures  and  green  meadows,  enameled  with  violets,  and  buttercups,  and 
daisies,  and  goldened  with  cowslips  and  dandelions;  its  spreading  elms  and 
sycamores;  its  clear  streams,  alternating  with  babbling  shallows  and  cool 
depths,  overhung  with  willows  and  alders,  and  the  favorite  haunts  of  roach, 
trout  and  pickerel ;  its  gray  precipices  and  romantic  falls;  its  striking  contrasts 
of  village  quiet  and  country  seat  retirement,  with  commercial  activity  and  city 
bustle.  All  these  can  never  be  forgotten.  With  me,  neither  the  pellucid  St. 
Lawrence  or  noble  Mississippi,  nor  those  floating  seas  of  alluvion,  mightiest 
of  the  brotherhood  of  rivers  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  the  Missouri  and 
Yang-tse-keang.  have  ever  served  to  obliterate,  or  even  to  dim  the  images 
of  the  Yantic,  Shetucket  and  Thames.  The  mammoth  tree  growths  of  the 
prairie  bottoms  of  the  west,  or  the  giant  banians  that  greet  my  vision  as  I 
write,  have  never  overshadowed  the  memory  of  Norwich  sycamores  and  elms. 
The  billowy  seas  of  granitic  elevations  which  stand,  a  wall  of  azure,  about 
the  valley  of  the  Min,  and  roll  away  in  endless  undulations  over  the  entire 
surface  of  the  Fo-ke-en  province,  are  not  so  charming  to  me  as  the  hills  of 
New  England.  Society  changes,  but  these  natural  features  remain,  and  im- 
press themeslves  upon  the  minds  of  successive  generations.  My  earliest 
recollections  of  Norwich  antedate  steamboats  and  railroads,  canals  and  tele- 
graphs, temperance  and  anti-slavery.  The  Yantic,  was  Backus's  iron  works ; 
the  Falls,  Hubbard's  paper  mills;  Greenville,  pastures  on  the  banks  of  the 
Shetucket,  in  which  curious  antiquarians  sought  for  the  pile  of  stones  that 
marked  the  grave  of  Miantinomoh.  The  first  and  second  Congregational 
were  the  only  edifices  really  worth  the  name  of  churches ;  and  I  remember  a 
Christmas  pilgrimage  on  foot  from  Bean  Hill  to  the  Landing  to  hear  the 
little  organ,  the  only  one  in  town,  in  the  little  wooden  Episcopal  church,  that 
preceded  the  present  elegant  structure.  Elder  Sterry,  Baptist,  had  a  little 
wooden  chapel  at  the  Landing,  where,  as  one  of  his  sons  said  to  me  in  our 


I40  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

schoolboy  days,  "He  preached  for  nothing  and  furnished  his  own  meeting 
house."  Elder  Bentley  had  a  little  church  on  the  wharf  bridge,  which  took 
a  fancy  to  go  to  sea  in  the  great  freshet  of  1815.  Court  house  and  jail  were 
up  town,  and  the  stocks  and  whipping  post  still  maintained  their  position  at 
the  corner  of  the  old  court  house.  I  have  seen  a  woman  in  jail  for  debt  and 
heard  my  grandmother  tell  of  the  last  woman  who  was  taken  to  the  whipping 
post,  and  how  the  people  laughed  at  the  sheriff  for  merely  going  through  the 
forms  of  the  law,  actually  flogging  the  fair  culprit  "with  a  tow  string." 

In  my  youth.  Strong  and  Goddard  were  at  the  head  of  the  bar.  and  gentle 
parson  Paddock,  earnest  parson  Mitchell,  and  the  solemn  parson  Strong, 
occupied  the  sacred  desk.  Through  life,  I  have  counted  it  no  small  privilege 
to  have  received  the  first  rudiments  of  education  in  Norwich.  I  mean  those 
initial  lessons  which  preceded  colleges  and  schools,  and  the  rudimental  train- 
ing of  pedagogues  Smith,  Bliss,  and  Lester,  of  cruel  memory.  A  child  i.': 
educated  by  all  those  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact,  and  the  personal 
excellences,  defects  and  peculiarities  of  his  earliest  acquaintances  become  his 
models  and  measuring  rods  for  all  the  rest  of  mankind.  Bonaparte  said,  "The 
world  is  governed  by  nicknames";  and  the  nicknames  of  a  community  are  a 
surer  index  of  the  character  of  the  wearers  than  cognomens  of  illustrious 
descent  or  appellations  bestowed  by  godfathers  and  godmothers.  While  a 
few  of  the  nicknames  which  still  cling  to  the  memory  of  men  long  since 
passed  from  the  stage  of  action,  recall  eccentricities,  peculiarities,  and  in  some 
instances  the  meannesses  with  which  our  humanity  is  afflicted,  the  great 
majority  of  them  revive  the  memory  of  nobleness  and  excellences  worthy 
of  remembrance  and  worthy  of  imitation.  It  is  more  blessed  to  be  surrounded 
by  good  men  than  great  men,  by  examples  of  worth  than  displays  of  wealth. 
My  memory  retains  a  whole  gallery  of  daguerreotypes  of  those  whom  I  loved 
or  hated,  reverenced  or  despized,  in  the  days  of  my  youth.  I  would  like  to 
pay  a  passing  tribute  of  respect  to  those  who  for  eminent  virtues  commanded 
my  most  unqualified  regard.  I  can  only  mention  Parsons  Strong  and  Austin, 
Judges  Spalding,  Shipman  and  Hude,  Erastus  Huntington,  James  Stedman, 
and  Deacon  Charles  Lathrop,  all  of  whom  have  gone  to  the  land  from  which 
there  is  no  return.  It  would  be  easy  to  extend  the  list,  but  my  limits  will 
not  allow.  I  cannot  refrain  from  a  passing  tribute  to  the  memory  of  two  of 
my  schoolmates,  recently  deceased — Reverend  Z.  H.  Mansfield  and  Honor- 
able Thomas  L.  Harris.  I  would  like  also  to  extend  the  compliments  of  the 
occasion  to  my  old  Norwich  schoolmates.  John  T.  Wait,  J.  G.  Lamb,  Rev. 
William  Havens,  Hon.  H.  P.  Haven,  Huntingtons,  Tracys,  and  others  whom 
I  may  not  here  enumerate.  I  was  in  Shanghai  last  year,  and  on  a  rude  wooden 
slab  at  the  head  of  a  recent  grave  I  read.  "Charles  Bailey,  Norwich,  Con- 
necticut," son  of  the  old  uptown  jail  keeper,  and  seaman  on  one  of  our  ships 
of  war.  In  what  part  of  the  world  do  not  the  bones  of  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  Norwich  repose!  Black-eyed  "Tom  Leffingwell"  lies  with  his  father  at 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  and  curly-headed  "Bob  Lee,"  slain  by  Comanches 
on  the  plains  of  Texas,  while  Ceylon  embalms,  with  the  fragrance  of  Paradise, 
the  remains  and  memories  of  Harriet  Joanna  and  Charlotte  H.  Lathrop.  How 
brief  the  space  over  which  the  life  of  any  one  individual  extends  in  the  history 
of  our  beloved  town.  Perhaps  not  a  single  soul  survives  that  saw  its  last  cen- 
tennial. Will  any  single  soul  live  to  connect  this  centennial  with  that  of 
1959?  This  occasion  should  not  pass  away  without  providing  enduring 
monuments  of  itself  for  the  use  of  coming  generations.  If  the  idea  has  not 
already  occurred,  as  I  presume  it  has.  I  would  suggest  the  erection  of  a  cen- 
tennial hall  of  Norwich  granite,  fire  proof,  if  possible,  to  contain  a  museum 
of  town  and  State  relics,  and  mementos  of  the  past,  of  our  fathers,  of  the 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  141 

Indian  tribes,  and  the  present  generation.  In  this  way,  1859  may  shake  hands 
with  IQSQ,  especially  if  sealed  boxes  and  coffers  containing-  the  sayings  and 
doing-s,  speeches  and  sentiments  of  this  day,  are  secured  there  to  be  opened 
only  on  the  occasion  of  the  next  centennial.  Books,  records,  portraits,  &c., 
would  fmd  their  appropriate  place  there,  and  it  would  become  the  favorite 
resort  of  all  those  who  reverence  the  past  and  desire  to  deduce  from  it  useful 
lessons  for  the  future. 

With  a  sigh  for  the  Norwich  that  was,  a  greeting  to  the  Norwich  that  is, 
and  a  hail  of  welcome  for  the  Norwich  that  is  to  be,  I  remain,  gentlemen, 

Erasttts  Went  worth. 

(From  Hon.  Charles  Miner,  of  Wilkes-Barre,  Pennsylvania.) 

Wilkes-Barre,  July  17,  1859. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Committee: — Your  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  com- 
memoration of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Norwich 
was  received  by  last  evening's  mail.  You  are  pleased  to  add:  "Should  you, 
however,  be  unable  to  attend,  will  you  favor  us  with  a  letter  containing  any 
facts  of  interest  in  your  possession  in  relation  to  the  town  or  its  inhabitants?" 

I  heg  to  return  my  most  respectful  acknowledgements.  I  can  scarcely 
conceive  anything  left  in  life  that  would  afford  me  so  much  pleasure.  But 
the  feebleness  of  near  eighty  years  admonishes  me  that,  not  only  is  the 
visit  hopeless,  but  that  if  I  have  anything  to  say,  it  should  not  be  a  moment 
delaj'ed. 

Affection  for  Norwich  is  entwined  with  every  fiber  of  my  heart.  Having 
emigrated  to  Pennsylvania  while  yet  a  boy,  my  time  of  observation  is  limited ; 
and  my  scene  of  observation,  to  little  more  than  the  old  town  or  round  the 
square,  fitted,  rather,  to  amuse  the  grandchildren,  than  impart  instruction  or 
pleasure  to  the  present  generation. 

Born  February  i,  1780;  peace  proclaimed  1784;  consciousness  of  memory 
is  first  awakened  to  the  shouts  of  triumph  and  the  thundering  of  cannon,  at 
the  old  Peck  house  (then,  I  think,  doubtingly),  kept  by  Mr.  Trott  (a  fiery  old 
patriot).  I  mention  this  as  connecting  me  with  the  Revolutionary  period, 
and  to  say,  the  drum,  the  fife,  military  display,  was  the  pervading  fashion. 
Almost  all  the  older  men  had  served  in  the  French  war.  Ticonderoga  was 
yet  a  familiar  theme.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  (then)  present  generation, 
moved  by  a  common  impulse,  had  been  down  to  Boston.  The  talk  was  of 
Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill.  General  Putnam  is  recorded  as  having  stopped 
his  plow  in  mid-furrow  and  started.  So  had  it  been  in  Norwich.  An  anecdote 
often  told  me  shows  the  universal  enthusiasm.  My  father,  a  house  carpenter, 
and  his  journeyman,  dropped  their  tools  on  the  alarm.  As  the  broad-axe 
rang,  the  journeyman  said,  "That  is  my  death  knell!"  Breathing  the  common 
spirit,  he  hied  away  cheerfully,  but  returned  no  more. 

My  father  was  on  Dorchester  heights,  as  orderly  sergeant  waiting  on 
Mr.  Huntington,  afterwards  general  Jed.  He  used  to  relate  that  going  the 
rounds,  or  reconnoitering,  the  British  opened  fire  upon  them  from  Boston. 
While  ever  and  anon  the  balls  would  scatter  the  earth  over  them.  General 
Huntington  moved  as  unconcernedly  as  if  at  home  in  his  own  meadow. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  half  the  men  on  the  square  wore  the  title  of  cap- 
tain. Starting  on  the  south  side  of  the  green  going  down  the  road  east, 
taking  them  in  order,  there  were  Captain  Bela  Peck,  Captain  Carew,  Captain 
Nevins,  Captain  Simeon  Huntington,  all  in  sight  and  nearly  adjoining.  The 
British  in  possession  of  New  York:  the  Sound  and  a  hundred  miles  of  the 
coast  of  Connecticut  being  subject  to  their  invasion,  Norwich  may  be  said 


142  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

to  have  slept  on  their  arms,  liable  every  minute  to  be  called  out.  Horse  Neck, 
Rye,  Seabrook,  New  London,  were  familiar  to  every  man  of  them.  To  be 
sure,  as  I  listened  to  their  war  stories,  always  with  interest,  sometimes  with 
awe,  occasionally  with  a  smile,  for  they  remembered  the  jokes  of  the  camp, 
I  do  not  recollect  an  imputation  upon  a  single  man  present  or  absent  as  want- 
ing in  courage  or  patriotism.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  record  anew  the  assurance 
that  Norwich  did  its  whole  duty. 

The  plays  of  the  boys  were  battles  with  the  regulars.  The  charge — the 
ambuscade — the  retreat— "The  regulars  are  coming!" — "The  regulars  are  com- 
ing!"   Then  the  rally  and  renewed  charge.    Their  songs: 

"Don't  you  hear  your  gen'ral  say. 
Strike  your  tents  and  march  away." 

But  to  the  schools.  The  old  brick  school  house  at  the  bottom  of  the 
lane,  below  the  spacious  new  jail,  knew  no  recess.  Among  the  earliest  teach- 
ers within  my  recollection  was  Charles  White,  a  young  gentleman  from 
Philadelphia,  handsome  and  accomplished.  Of  his  erudition  I  was  too  young 
to  judge,  but  popular  he  certainly  was  among  the  ladies.  Newcomb  Kinney 
awakened  a  high  degree  of  emulation,  especially  in  writing.  A  sampler  was 
pasted  up  before  six  or  seven  scholars,  near  the  ceiling,  on  fine  paper,  on  a 
double  arch  sustained  by  Corinthian  columns,  the  upper  corners  of  each  sheeti 
bearing  a  neatly  painted  quill,  with  the  motto,  "Vive  la  Plume."  Within 
each  half  arch,  near  the  upper  part,  in  fine  hand,  a  poetical  quotation,  as  sug- 
gested by  fancy,  probably  from  Hannah  Moore's  "Search  After  Happiness," 
then  highly  popular.  Beneath,  in  larger  hand,  successive  lines  in  beautiful 
penmanship,  filling  the  whole.  The  Piece  painted  in  water  colors — the  pride 
of  mothers- — master  and  scholars. 

Mr.  Hunt,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  followed.  Mr.  Macdonald  succeeded,  and 
then  Mr.  Baldwin  became  the  preceptor.  The  obedience  fair — teachers  capa- 
ble and  attentive.  Discipline  preserved  without  undue  severity.  Plasant  were 
our  school  hours.     But  school  is  let  out.     Boyish  sports  abound, 

"Some  chase  the  rolling  circle's  speed. 
Or  urge  the  flying  ball." 

In  winter  the  plain  ofTered  a  capital  opportunity  for  a  trial  of  skill  and 
courage.  .Sides  were  chosen.  Each  party  built  a  semi-circular  fort  of  vast 
snow  balls,  eight  or  ten  rods  apart.  When  the  snow  was  soft  and  would 
adhere,  all  hands  were  summoned  to  the  work.  A  line  of  balls  as  big  as  could 
be  rolled  was  laid  in  a  crescent ;  outside  that  another  as  large.  Then  with 
skids  a  row  on  the  top — then  a  third  row  large  as  could  be  raised  on  the 
submit  to  crown  the  work,  making  a  formidable  breastwork.  Lockers  were 
cut  out  in  the  inside  to  hold  great  quantities  of  balls  made  ready  for  action. 
When  both  sides  were  prepared,  a  proclamation  was  made,  and  then  came  the 
"tug  of  war."    The  sport  was  manly  and  exciting. 

Other  plays  were  popular — most  I  have  seen  elsewhere — "Thornuary," 
nowhere  else.  Here  the  uptown  and  downtown  boys  were  sometimes  pitted 
against  each  other.  There  was  among  us  an  active  fellow  named  Choate, 
"Jabe  Choate"  we  called  him.  Not  of  Norwich,  he  was  a  down-easter.  From 
Boston,  I  understood.  In  our  little  circle  he  was  a  Coriolanus,  for  "When 
he  moved  he  moved  like  an  engine"— and  like  our  modern  crinoline-clad 
ladies,  swept  all  before  him,  yet  a  favorite,  for  he  was  brave  and  clever.  T 
have  wondered,  if  not  the  father,  was  he  not,  probably,  the  uncle  of  Rufus, 
the  present  idol  of  Boston? 

Mrs.  Gildon  kept  a  school  a  few  rods  below  the  plain  for  small  children — 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  143 

she  had  a  son  Charles  growing  up  to  early  manhood.  I  do  not  know  theiK 
fate.  The  name  is  rare.  The  good  school  mistress  has  often  been  brought 
to  mind  when  reading  Poe: 

"If  hungry  Gildon  drew  his  venal  qiiill, 
I  wish  the  man  a  dinner  and  sit  still." 

But  Pope's  shaft  was  no  dishonor.  So  eminent  an  archer  stooped  to  no 
ignoble  game. 

Hark !  The  whole  town  is  in  commotion.  A  company  of  strolling  play- 
ers have  taken  possession  of  the  lower  part  of  the  court  house,  and  it  is  con- 
verted into  a  commodious  theater.  Where  slept  our  puritan  thunder!  The 
tragedy  of  George  Barnwell  drew  many  a  tear,  soon  wiped  away  in  smiles 
by  the  shrewd  follies  of  Tony  Lumpkin,  in  "The  mistakes  of  a  night."  The 
grown-up  beaux  of  Norwich,  especially  those  who  had  visited  New  York 
and  got  their  cue,  were  in  high  glee.  I  have  a  good  mind  to  name  seven  or 
eight.  The  comic  singer  of  the  company  displayed  some  tact — had  a  good 
voice,  and  sang,  "Ye  Bucks!  have  att — ye  all."  (Never  having  seen  the  song 
nor  heard  it  since,  I  pretend  to  give  only  the  sound.) 

Instead  of  the  pit,  the  critic's  place,  the  roaring  boys  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  seats  far  back  and  high  up  in  the  amphitheater,  and  when  he  came 
with  all  the  proper  accompaniments  of  tone  and  gesture  to 

"D n  ye  !     I  know  ye — 

Ye  are  of  att  ye  all," 

It  was  a  signal  for  a  general  cheer!  And  brought  down  the  house  with 
an  "Encore." 

Several  new  songs  were  introduced  by  the  company,  and  among  them 
the  many  year  popular  "A  rose  tree  in  full  bearing,"  which  Miss  Mary  Nevins, 
the  fairest  rose  that  ever  bloomed,  used  so  sweetly  to  sing.  Passinglj' — the 
songs  of  the  period  were  mainly  the  hunting  songs  borrowed  from  England — 

"Bright  Phoebus  has  mounted  his  chariot  of  day. 
With  hounds  and  horns  each  jovial  morn  when  Bucks  a  hunting  go." 

But  these  were  giving  place  to  the  more  modern  sailor  songs  of  Dibdin.  My 
intimate  and  ever  dear  friend,  Gerard  Carpenter,  used  to  sing  admirably — 

"To  England  when  with  fav'ring  gale, 
Our  gallant  ship  up  channel  steered." 

What  noise  is  that,  which  makes  the  whole  green  ring  again?  Mr. 
Jones,  the  cooper,  residing  next  to  Captain  Peck's  on  the  south  side  of  the 
plain,  with  his  adz  and  double-driver,  holding  it  in  the  middle  and  playing 
it  rapidly  on  the  empty  barrel,  as  he  drives  the  hoop,  sounds  a  reveille  to 
the  whole  neighborhood,  regular  as  the  strains  of  Memnon. 

A  truce  to  these  trifles.  The  Sabbath  has  come.  Everybody  went  to 
meeting.  It  was  the  pleasantest  day  of  the  week.  Manning  is  ringing  the 
bell.  Let  us  note  the  carriages  as  they  come  up.  The  chaise  drawn  by  that 
bay,  so  sleek,  he  looks  as  if  he  had  been  varnished  for  the  occasion,  brings 
Captain  Thomas  Fanning  and  (pardon  me,  I  was  then  a  young  man)  his  two 
charming  daughters.  I  think  he  was  the  attendant  of  our  uptown  meeting 
who  came  from  the  nearest  landing.  That  stout  black  in  ji  wider  chaise  brings 
Lady  Lathrop,  attended  by  Mr.  Huntley  and  his  daughter,  a  pretty  little  girl 
of  eight  or  nine,  whoes  poetic  genius  and  sweet  moral  strains  have  shed  a  ray 
of  glory,  not  only  on  her  native  town  (as  Lydia  Huntley  and  Mrs.  Sigourney), 
but  over  her  whole  country,  and  rendered  her  name  a  praise  throughout  the 


Tj_.  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

republic  of  letters.  Here  drives  up  a  double  carriage,  plain,  yet  neat.  Those 
spanking  bavs  are  full  of  spirit,  they  move  admirably.  They  bring  the  family 
of  Mr.  Thomas  Lathrop,  who  occupies  the  very  handsome  white  mansion  on 
the  southern  hill  bounding  the  square. 

(Note. — Manning  has  ceased  ringing,  and  is  tolling  the  bell.  Mr.  Strong 
will  be  here  presently.  He  comes  with  his  lady,  drawn  in  a  plain  chaise  by 
a  stalwart  brown  horse,  the  favorite  of  many  years.) 

Observe,  as  Mr.  Strong  ascends  the  steps  numbers  press  round  and  hand 
him  scraps  of  paper.  They  are  received  as  matters  of  course — six — seven — 
or  eight,  as  it  may  happen.  We  shall  see  directly  what  they  are.  While  the 
psalm  is  being  sung,  which  precedes  the  morning  prayer,  the  minister's  head 
is  inclined  forward  as  if  reading.  He  rises  and  reads  the  slips  of  paper — one 
after  another,  running  in  this  wise :  "Z.  D.  being  about  to  take  a  voyage  to 
sea,  asks  the  prayers  of  this  congregation  that  he  maj'  be  preserved  and 
restored  in  safety  to  his  family." 

Several  desiring  to  return  thanks  for  mercies  received.  I  dare  not  allo^^ 
myself  to  state  the  variety  of  petitions,  relating  to  ordinary  circumstances  in 
life.  It  would  seem  to  have  required  long  habit  and  a  retentive  memorj'  to 
recall  them,  yet  Mr.  Strong  would  touch  each,  briefly,  but  appropriately,  and 
with  such  earnestness  and  pathos,  especially  when  praying  for  the  sick,  as  by 
sympathy  swelling  in  every  breast,  and  made  the  petition,  the  prayer  indeed 
of  the  whole  congregation. 

Of  the  church  music.  Roberts,  the  famed  singing  master,  had  been  among 
the  voices,  and  infused  his  own  impassioned  soul  into  the  school.  The  front 
seats  of  the  gallerj- — treble — counter — tenor — bass — were  all  full.  "O,  that 
I  could  describe  them  to  you !"  In  the  pews  below  were  numbers  who  had 
caught  the  inspiration.  Nay.  more.  Colonel  Zack  was  among  them,  himself 
an  organ  full  of  melody  and  power.  Did  "The  Pilgrims'  Song"  close  the 
worship  of  the  day,  an  hundred  voices  attuned  to  perfect  harmony,  joining 
to  swell  the  strain, 

"Rise,  my  soul,  and  stretch  thy  wings, 
To  seats  prepared  above," 

The  whole  congregation  rose  to  their  feet — entranced. 

The  life  of  ]\Ir.  Strong,  the  revered,  the  beloved,  his  precepts  and  exam- 
ple, however  imperfectly  regarded,  have  been  with  me  through  life.  His  influ- 
ence for  good  is  yet  felt  among  hundreds  of  the  descendants  of  emigrants  from 
Norwich. 

Monday  has  come  and  brings  its  usual  busy  throng  and  varving  scenes. 

Two  printing  presses  were  in  full  operation,  that  of  Mr.  Trumbull  had 
been  long  established,  and  his  paper  was  always  read  with  pleasure.  Busy 
memory,  clinging  to  everything  with  child-like  delight  that  relates  to  Nor- 
wich, calls  up  the  anecdote.  The  fashion  of  the  day  was  for  advertisers  to 
close — "Inquire  of  the  printer."  The  wit  of  the  town  was  dying.  Mr.  Trum 
bull  bent  over  him  with  his  wonted  kindness  and  asked  softly,  "Do  you  know 
me,  Mr.  Barney?"  "If  I  don't  I'll  inquire  of  the  printer."  Samuel  Trumbull, 
the  oldest  son,  was  a  young  man  of  a  good  deal  of  reading,  and  of  ready  wit. 
He  wrote  several  essays  under  the  head  of  "From  the  desk  of  Beri  Hesden." 
The  hint  and  the  name  of  the  essays — "From  the  desk  of  poor  Robert 
the  Scribe,"  I  am  sure  I  owed  him.  William  Pitt  Turner  was  the  Aesop  of 
the  press,  the  poet  and  satirist,  and  lashed  the  foibles  of  the  Bucks  of  "Att 
ye  all,"  with  no  stinted  measures.  Young  Trumbull,  following  in  his  wake, 
satirized  the  younger  brood,  and  I  came  in,  fairly  enough,  for  my  share,  more 
proud  of  the  notice  than  angry  at  the  rod. 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  145 

The  recent  member  of  the  Assemblj-,  Gurdon  Trumbull,  esq.,  it  was 
my  g:ood  fortune  to  form  an  intimate  acuqaintance  with,  in  1839,  at  Hartford. 
(1  hope  he  is  with  you.)  I  cannot  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of  adding,  thaf 
I  was  subsequently  indebted  to  his  partial  kindness  for  several  favors  done 
so  considerately,  and  performed  in  a  manner  so  delicate,  as  to  demand  a 
renewed  and  more  open  acknowledgement ;  mentioned  to  show  how  naturally 
and  kindly  the  heart  of  the  Norwich  boys  "warm  to  the  tartan." 

The  other  printing  office  was  nearly  opposite  that  of  Mr.  Trumbull's, 
close  to  Collier's  brass  foundry.  The  paper  published  by  Bushnell  Sz  Hub- 
bard. Mr.  Bushnell  was  afterwards  appointed  a  purser  in  the  navy,  and  died 
of  yellow  fever  at  sea.  I  mention  the  fact  to  add,  that  when  in  the  West 
Indies,  several  gentlemen  were  inscribing  the  names  of  wives  and  sweethearts 
in  a  mountain  grove — Bushnell  declined  to  do  so,  lest  the  thoughtless  should 
desecrate  the  place  by  obscene  additions,  but  he  wrote  a  poem  addressed  to 
his  wife,  it  is  said,  of  remarkable  delicacy  and  beauty.  A  man  of  genius  and 
learning,  few  were  more  capable.     Has  Norwich  preserved  it? 

The  rival  houses  are  at  war.  Small  pox  has  broken  out.  There  is  not 
a  moment  to  delay.     Two  establishments  for  inoculation  start  into  existence 

on  the  Thames,  in  Mohegan.     Dr.  Tracy  and  Dr.  preside  over  that 

at  famed  Massapeage.  Dr.  Marvin  and  Dr.  Jewett  over  the  other,  at  Adgate's. 
These  were  prominent  points  of  interest  in  their  day. 

"Friendship  to  even,-  willing  mind, 
Opens  a  heavenly  treasure," 

From  lady  voices  I  still  recollect  as  soothing  to  my  feverish  and  restless 
spirits.  In  the  main  the  remembrances  were  agreeable,  redolent  rather  of 
frolic  and  fun  than  of  pain. 

Do  you  see  those  strange  looking  men  hawking  pictures,  in  broken 
English?  They  are  French  emigrants,  thus  seeking  to  win  their  bread, 
exiled  from  home  by  the  revolution,  now  raging.  Listen:  "Louis  de  16 — 
madame  Elizabet."  They  have  pictures  of  the  guillotine,  with  their  execu- 
tioner, and  the  head  of  the  king,  all  ghastly,  streaming  with  blood,  which  he 
is  holding  up.  Look  again — what  have  they?  Beautiful  pictures,  but  so 
nearly  immodest  as  to  make  me  hesitate  to  bring  to  recollection,  what  was 
then  familiar  to  everyone  in  open  market.  The  revolutionists,  to  cast  odium 
on  the  royal  family,  represented  an  intimacy  between  the  infamous  Duke  of 
Orleans  and  the  queen,  Maria  Antoinette.     The  polished  verse  runs  thus: 

"Avaunt.  rash  boy,  while  I  my  homage  pay. 
WTiere  joys  are  bred  and  nestling  cupids  play." 

Another — a  sans-cullote  sailor,  with  a  red  cap  and  shirt —  emblems  of 
liberty  and  courage.  A  French  man-of-war  has  captured  an  English  frigate. 
The  sailor  sings : 

"When  e'er  on  French  decks  shouts  of  victory  roar, 
Your  crown's  a  red  cap,  and  tyrants  are  no  more." 

The  winter  assemblys  demand  special  notice.  Managed  with  such  scru- 
pulous care,  every  lady  who  might  desire  it  was  not  only  invited,  but  provided 
with  a  carriage  and  agreeable  escort.  Mr.  Lathrop  had  built  an  assembly 
room,  with  a  spring  floor,  on  purpose.  There  was  no  formal  supper,  but  tea, 
coflFee,  tongue,  ham,  cakes,  and  every  suitable  refreshment  in  abundance. 
Collier,  with  his  inimitable  violin — Manning  with  his  drum.  Order,  the  most 
perfect,  never  for  a  moment,  that  I  saw  or  heard  of,  infringed.  Contra  dances 
K.L.— 1-10 


146  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

occupied  the  evening.  The  stately  minuet  had  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  the 
cotillion  not  yet  introduced.  The  lines  of  a  modern  song  express  what  was 
universally  felt : 

"The  reign  of  pleasure  is  restored. 
Of  ease  and  gay  delight." 

In  their  apology,  if  one  be  needed,  let  me  add,  Washington  would  have 
approved,  and  entered  the  pleasant  occurrence  in  his  journal.  The  musicians 
knew  their  hour,  and  at  i  the  assemblv  closed.  They  did  not  escape  the  keen 
edge  of  satire.  The  poem  of  W.  P.  Turner  could  be  repeated  by  many  emi- 
grants to  the  Susquehanna,  forty  years  afterward. 

The  hum  of  industry  is  everywhere.  Norwich  uptown  is  a  bee  hive. 
Every  mechanic,  and  there  are  few  idlers,  with  every  workman,  was  employed 
manufacturing  hats,  tin  ware,  pewter  ware,  boots,  shoes,  harness,  coaches, 
chaises,  small  carriages,  for  slaves  to  draw  the  children — everything.  The 
West  Indies  demanded  many  cargoes.  Such  was  the  prosperity  of  the  country 
around,  nearly  every  farmer  would  have  his  chaise.  The  fact  that  there  were 
two  coach  and  chaise  manufactories  in  the  town  fully  employed,  showing 
the  activity  of  one  branch,  will  indicate  that  of  others. 

Take  your  stand  on  the  school  house  steps,  and  suppose  a  circulating 
panorama.  Note  that  drove  of  horses  dashing  by.  The  driver  is  Lazelle, 
from  the  north.  Twent}'  of  the  sixty  are  Canadian.  They  are  for  Rowland's 
brig.  Jesse  Brown  will  see  they  are  cared  for  a  week,  and  send  them  to  New 
London,  when  the  brig  is  nearly  ready  to  sail.  A  dozen  vessels  are  preparing 
at  the  landing  for  cargoes,  and  droves  are  daily  arriving. 

Such  a  demand  for  horses  must  create  a  demand  for  sires.  Luckily,  here 
they  pass,  each  with  his  groom.  That  superlatively  beautiful  bright  bay, 
fourteen  hands  high,  is  "Figure,"  belonging  to  Haynes,  of  New  London. 
That  monster  dark  bay  following,  seventeen  hands  high,  is  "Nimrod."  The 
dark  chestnut  is  a  favorite  Rhode  Island  pacer.    "Count  Pulaski"  is  the  last. 

What  mean  those  two  covered  carts  with  tinkling  bells?  They  are  our 
market.  The  single  one,  a  daily,  from  Bean  Hill.  The  double  is  from  Wind- 
ham, a  weekly,  but  loaded  with  mutton  that  would  tempt  an  epicure. 

Note  that  dashing  gentleman  and  lady  on  the  fine  pair  of  blacks.  They 
have  a  foreign  air.  It  is  Jackson  Brown,  supposed  to  be  an  agent  of  the 
British  commissary  department.  They  do  not  stop  to  have  the  gate  opened; 
but  bound  over  it  as  if  in  pursuit  of  a  fox. 

Note  that  splendid  chariot,  with  servants  in  livery  as  out  riders.  There 
are  two  or  three  pairs  of  elegant  English  hunters.  They  are  bounding  away 
in  pursuit  of  pleasure,  to  the  Bozrah  great  pond,  a  fishing.  It  is  the  establish- 
ment of  the  noted  English  Lord  Bellisais. 

Hark!  There  is  music  in  the  court  house.  An  Irish  gentleman  of  titled 
family,  whom  the  war  has  embarrassed,  with  a  noble  spirit  of  independence, 
rather  than  sit  down  in  indigence  and  despair,  has  opened  a  dancing  school, 
not  only  here,  but  in  Bozrah,  Franklin,  and  two  or  three  neighboring  towns. 
Ordering  his  time  that  he  may  attend  here  twice  a  week,  and  visit  the  others 
once  a  week,  not  a  minute  was  wasted. 

John  C.  De  Vereaux ;  that  is  the  gentleman  in  the  open  carriage  with  the 
hump-backed  musician,  Howell,  bv  his  side.  The  general  prosperity  rendered 
it  easy  for  parents,  all  round  to  country,  to  gratify  their  children.  Would  any- 
one ask — "How  did  he  succeed  ?"  Enquire  who,  forty  years  afterwards,  was 
the  wealthiest  merchant  in  Utica.  and  president  of  the  United  States  branch 
bank?    The  answer  would  be  John  C.  De  Vereaux. 

Evening  approaches — where  are  the  stages?     O!  here  they  come  up  in 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  147 

style  to  Brown's  hotel.  That  from  the  east,  the  horses  all  in  a  foam,  has  come 
all  the  way  from  Providence,  since  morning! 

The  one  from  the  west  is  from  Hartford.  What  is  that  under  the  Hart- 
ford stage?  It  looks  like  the  fore-top-sail  of  a  brig.  Lo !  it  is  a  sail  cloth,  so 
nailed  under  the  bottom  as  to  hang  loose  and  bring  down  salmon  from  Hart- 
ford, without  being  bruised,  for  Brown,  like  Lathrop,  had  a  pride  in  setting 
a  capital  table,  and  it  is  lucky  today,  as  President  Adams  has  just  arrived. 

Party,  the  twin  sister  of  freedom,  then  prevailed,  as  it  ever  will,  and  the 
morning  salute,  confidently  expected,  was  marred,  as  we  black  cockade  federal 
boys  charged,  by  the  intentional  failure  of  our  opponents  to — "keep  their 
powder  dry." 

Training  day,  especially  regimental,  or  brigade,  was  a  great  event.  The 
Matross  company,  commanded  then  by  Roger  Griswold,  afterwards  by  Cap- 
tain Bailey  paraded  in  front  of  the  meeting  house;  the  light  infantry,  in 
uniform,  near  the  old  Perit  house;  the  common  militia  company,  facing  west, 
on  the  lower  point  of  the  green ;  companies  from  the  neighboring  towns  arriv- 
ing, where  the  adjutant  assigned  them  their  position.  From  an  early  hour 
the  plain  was  thronged ;  the  line  formed — mark  that  fine  soldier-like  bearing 
man  on  that  stately  war  steed — that  is  General  Marvin.  Accompanied  by  his 
aides,  in  splendid  uniform  and  nodding  plumes,  music  filling  the  air,  the  line 
is  passed,  the  salute  given,  the  column  formed ;  the  march  is  down  east  and 
round  the  square.  The  band  and  the  brigade  of  drums  and  fifes  under  Collier 
and  Manning,  alternating.  Passing  Governor  Huntington's,  the  salute  is 
repeated,  and  could  not  be  paid  to  a  worthier,  unless  Washington  were  him- 
self present.  The  windows  all  round  are  sparkling  with  beauty,  and  we  little 
bo>s  were  thrice  happy  to  trudge  round  on  foot,  hear  the  music,  and  see  the 
pageant. 

A  marked  incident  in  the  exhibition  was  the  assemblage  of  all  Mohegans 
and  Betty  Uncas,  their  queen,  with  brooms,  baskets,  blankets,  papooses  with- 
out number.  They  lined  the  fence  from  Eli  Lord's  to  Lathrop's.  The  military 
dismissed,  still  the  plain  is  thronged.  Here  is  Captain  Griswold,  with  a  dozen 
of  the  most  active  fellows,  playing  a  game  of  cricket.  Yonder  is  Captain 
Slocum  and  a  party  intent  on  a  wrestling  match.  Each  right  hand  hold  of  his 
opponent's  right  shoulder.  It  was  a  game  of  skill,  rather  than  of  strength — 
the  trip  and  twitch — the  steel  trap  quickness.  The  Zouaves  could  hardly  beat 
them.  An  adroitness  that  would  seem  unrivaled.  Let  the  unpracticed,  hov^- 
ever  strong  and  courageous,  beware  how  he  enters  the  lists,  or  he  will  find 
himself  sprawling  in  mid-air,  seeking  a  resting  place  on  the  green  turf,  flat 
on  his  back,  amid  the  cheers  of  hundreds. 

Look!  There  is  a  daring  fellow  climbing  up  to  the  ball  on  the  steeple. 
It  makes  one's  head  dizzy  to  gaze  on  him.  That  is  John  Post — fearless  and 
spry  as  a  wild  cat. 

Hark !  The  sounds  of  revelry  proceed  from  Lathrop's  chamber  windows. 
The  officers  have  dined,  and  prefer  punch,  such  as  Lathrop  only  could  make. 
to  indifferent  wine.  The  choicest  Antigua,  loaf  sugar  by  the  pail  full,  lemons, 
oranges,  limes.  Merrier  fellows,  within  tempered  mirth,  never  wore  cockade 
or  feather. 

So  with  "sports  that  wrinkled  care  derides,"  closed  the  day.  The  half 
is  not  said,  yet  I  feel  that  I  am  abusing  your  patience.  When  did  a  native  ever 
begin  to  talk  of  Norwich  and  know  when  to  stop? 

From  the  time  the  Jewish  maidens  hung  their  harps  on  the  willows,  and 
sang  of  Jerusalem,  to  the  lav  of  the  sweetest  modern  minstrel,  "My  native 
land"  has  been  a  cherished  theme.  Thus  with  singular  pleasure  have  T  run 
over  the  scenes  of  my  childhood,  and  endeavored  to  sketch,  v.ith  rapid  pencil, 


148  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

"Norwich  uptown,  the  plain,  and  round  the  square,"  as  memory  recalls  it, 
seventy  years  ago,  which,  with  cordial  good  wishes,  is  respectfully  sub- 
mitted. 

From  Miss  Caulkins  we  quote  the  following  account  of  the  industrial 
growth  of  Norwich: 

The  enterprise  of  the  inhabitants  in  the  line  of  manufactures  has  been 
frequently  mentioned  in  the  course  of  this  history.  But  the  subject  will  here 
be  retraced,  and  various  undertakings  chronicled  in  their  order,  as  far  as  data 
for  this  purpose  have  been  obtained. 

Iron  works  were  established  in  the  parish  of  New  Concord  in  1750  by 
Captain  Joshua  Abell  and  Nehemiah  Huntington.  They  contracted  with 
Robert  Martin,  of  Preston,  to  become  the  overseer  or  operator  of  their  works, 
engaging  him  to  make  and  refine  iron  into  anconie,  to  be  done  workmanlike, 
and  binding  themselves  to  remunerate  him  with  100  lbs.  of  bar  iron  for  every 
200  anconies  he  shall  make. 

Elijah  Backus  commenced  a  similar  work  at  Yantic  nearly  at  the  same 
time.  These  are  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  forges  erected  in  New 
London  county.  They  manufactured  blooming  and  bar  iron  for  anchors, 
mills,  and  other  uses. 

In  the  year  1766,  cutlery  as  a  business  made  its  appearance,  and  various 
implements  of  husbandr5^  that  had  before  been  imported,  were  manufactured 
in  the  town.  The  Backus  iron  works  obtained  great  repute,  and  during  the 
Revolutionary  war  all  kinds  of  iron  work  necessary  for  domestic  use,  and 
various  instruments  of  warfare,  were  made  and  repaired  at  the  Yantic  forges. 
The  same  year  a  potterv  for  the  manufacture  of  stone  ware  was  established  at 
Bean  Hill,  which  continued  in  operation  far  into  the  present  century,  seldom, 
however,  employing  more  than  four  or  five  hands. 

The  making  of  linseed  oil  was  commenced  at  Bean  Hill  in  1748  by 
Hezekiah  Huntington.  In  October.  1778,  Elijah  and  Simon  Lathrop  gave 
notice  in  the  "New  London  Gazette"  that  they  had  erected  an  oil-mil!  at 
Norwich  Falls,  and  were  ready  to  exchange  a  gallon  of  oil  for  a  bushel  o? 
well-cleaned  flaxseed.  In  1786,  Silas  Goodell  set  up  another  oil-mill  near  the 
falls.  This  was  probably  the  same  that  in  1791  was  owned  by  Joshua  Hunt- 
ington. Lathrop's  mill  was  destroyed  by  fire  November  9,  1788.  The  loss 
was  estimated  at  $1,500,  a  considerable  quantity  of  oil  and  flaxseed  being  con- 
sumed. It  was  rebuilt  the  next  year.  In  these  mills  flaxseed  was  used  to 
produce  the  best  kind  of  oil,  but  inferior  kinds  of  seed  were  often  substituted. 
The  three  mills  together  produced  about  9.000  gallons  annuallv,  which  sold 
at  three  or  four  shillings  per  gallon. 

During  the  Revolutionary  war,  iron  wire  and  cards  were  made  at  the 
falls,  under  the  supervision  of  Nathaniel  Niles.  Edmund  Darrow  established 
at  the  same  period  a  nailery,  which  continued  in  operation  nearly  to  the 
close  of  the  century. 

The  business  of  weaving  stockings  was  begun  in  1766,  under  the  patron- 
age of  Christopher  Leffingwell.  William  Russell,  an  Englishman,  was  the 
first  operator.  For  many  years  it  was  a  small  concern,  limited  to  two  or 
three  looms.  But  in  1791,  Lcffingwell  had  nine  looms  in  operation,  produc- 
ing annually  from  1,200  to  5,000  pair  of  hose,  and  employing  in  the  manufac- 
ture worsted,  cotton,  linen,  and  silk.  The  silk  hose  ranged  in  value  from 
12s.  to  20s.  per  pair.  Gloves  and  purses  were  also  woven  at  these  mills,  the 
whole  business  employing  only  five  operatives.  At  a  later  period  the  business 
was  continued  successively  by  Louis  Baral,  Leonard  Beattie,  and  William 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  149 

Coxe.  all  forciErners.  and  still  later  by  Jeremiah  Griffing,  a  native  of  New 
London. 

Stocking-looms  were  not  only  employed  here,  but  constructed.  Before 
1790,  looms  that  had  been  made  in  Norwich  were  set  up  at  Hartford  and 
Poughkeepsie — two  at  each  place.  Looms  were  in  operation  at  that  period 
in  New  Haven,  Litchfield,  and  Wallingford,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
these  also  were  made  in  Norwich.  To  accommodate  his  stocking-looms  and 
other  utilitarian  projects.  Colonel  Leffingwell  built,  after  1780,  the  range  of 
shops  called  Leffingwell's  row.  In  1785,  wool-cards  were  made  by  James 
Lincoln  in  Leffingwell's  row. 

Paper. — In  the  early  manufacture  of  this  article  in  Norwich,  Christopher 
Lefifingwell  stands  pre-eminent.  His  mill  upon  the  Yantic,  near  No-man's 
Acre,  was  erected  in  1766.  This  was  the  first  paper-mill  in  Connecticut.  Lef- 
fingAvcH's  mill  in  a  short  period  produced  various  kinds  of  paper  for  wrap- 
ping, writing,  printing,  cartridges,  and  sheathing.  The  quantity  annually 
turned  out  was  estimated  at  1,300  reams,  the  prices  varying  from  4s.  6d.  to 
45s.  per  ream.  Ten  or  twelve  hands  were  employed.  At  the  outset  of  this 
undertaking,  a  small  bounty  was  granted  by  the  government,  to  continue  for 
three  years.  It  was  not  renewed.  After  the  year  1790,  Andrew  Huntington 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  paper,  and  erected  a  new  mill  upon  the  Yantic, 
either  on  the  site  of  Leffingwell's  oil  mill,  or  very  near  it.  Ebenezer  Bushnell 
was  for  a  few  years  his  partner. 

Chocolate  Mills.— Christopher  Leffingwell  was  first  in  this  department 
also.  His  chocolate-mill  was  in  operation  in  1770.  Another  was  erected  in 
1779  by  Simon  Lathrop.  They  were  both  moved  by  water-wheels,  and 
could  be  tended  each  by  a  single  workman.  The  chocolate  made  was  of  the 
best  quality  and  the  quantity  produced  was  estimated  at  4,000  and  5,000 
pounds  annually.  It  sold  in  considerable  quantities  at  I4d.  per  lb.;  retail- 
ers asked  iSd. 

Clocks  and  Watches. — This  business  was  commenced  in  1773  by  Thomas 
Harland,  a  mechanician  of  great  skill  and  efficiency.  His  watches  were  pro- 
nounced equal  to  the  best  English  importations.  In  1790  he  had  ten  or 
twelve  hands  in  constant  employ,  and  it  was  stated  that  he  made  annually 
two  hundred  watches  and  forty  clocks.  His  price  for  silver  watches  varied 
from  £4  los.  to  £7  los.  As  at  that  period  watches  were  far  from  being 
common,  and  it  was  even  a  mark  of  distinction  to  wear  one,  ^Ir.  Harland's 
establishment  was  a  center  of  the  business  for  a  considerable  extent  of 
country.  Barzillai  Davidson,  1775,  N.  Shipman,  Sen.,  1789,  Eliphaz  Hart  on 
the  Green  by  the  court  house,  and  Judah  Hart  at  the  Landing,  in  1812, 
though  not  probably  to  any  great  extent  manufacturers,  were  yet  "workers 
in  gold  and  silver,"  and  offered  for  sale  handsome  assortments  of  jewelry  and 
time-keepers. 

Between  the  years  1773  and  1780,  four  fulling-mills  with  dlothiers' 
shops  and  dye-houses  went  into  operation — one  in  the  parish  of  New  Con- 
cord, one  in  Franklin,  a  third  at  the  falls,  "near  Starr  and  Leffingwell's  works 
adjoining  the  Paper  Mill."  and  a  fourth  on  Bean  Hill. 

In  a  statement  made  of  the  industrial  pursuits  of  the  town  in  1791,  in 
addition  to  several  establishments  already  noticed,  are  the  following  items: 
Two  nailleries,  or  machines  for  making  nails,  employing  eight  or  ten  hands. 
Fifteen  blacksmiths,  who  make  annually  about  50  dozen  scythes,  150  dozen 
hoes.  50  dozen  axes,  and  other  implements  for  domestic  and  agricultural  use. 
Three  distilleries.    Two  tobacconists.    Two  braziers,  and  a  bell-foundry. 

Cotton. — In  1790,  Dr.  Joshua  Lathrop  established  a  cotton  factory  in  the 
town-plot.     He  began  with  five  jennys,  one  carding-machine,  and  six  looms. 


I50  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

This  machinery  was  afterward  increased,  and  a  great  variety  of  goods  manu- 
factured, probably  to  the  amount  of  2,000  yards  per  year  while  the  project  was 
continued.  In  1793,  the  firm  was  Lathrop  &  Eells.  The  following  is  one  of 
their  advertisements,  March  19,  1793: 

Lathrop  &  Eells  have  just  finished  a  variety  of  Cotton  Goods,  consisting  of  Royal  Ribs, 
Ribdelures,  Ribdurants.  Ribdenims,  Ribbets.  Zebrays.  Satinetts.  Satin-Stripes,  Satin  Cords, 
Thicksetts,  Corduroys.  Stockinctts.  Dimotys,  Feathered  Stripes,  Birds-Eye,  Denims,  Jeans, 
Jeanetts.  Fustians.  Bed  Tickings  that  will  hold  feathers. 

The  above  Goods  are  well  finished,  and  for  durability  undoubtedly  superior  to  European 
manufactured.  Gentlemen,  merchants,  and  others,  who  feel  disposed  to  encourage  home 
manufactures,  are  invited  to  call  and  see  for  themselves,  and  may  be  assured  they  shall  be 
supplied  as  low  as  they  can  furnish  themselves  from  any  quarter. 

This  business  could  not  be  made  remunerative,  and  after  a  trial  of  eight 
or  ten  3ears  was  discontinued. 

The  manufacturing  spirit  had  been  called  into  exercise  to  meet  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  Revolution.  Before  that  time  the  country  had  been  dependent 
upon  England  for  all  articles  that  required  combination,  capital  and  machi- 
nery for  their  production.  When  the  intercourse  with  Europe  was  renewed, 
and  commerce  again  brought  the  lavish  results  of  foreign  labor  to  our  shores, 
the  crude  manufactures  of  the  country  declined,  most  of  the  imported  articles 
being  cheaper  than  those  made  at  home.  The  spinning^vheel  and  loom  still 
kept  their  place  in  families,  fulling-mills  and  carding-machines  were  patron- 
ized, ropes  and  nails  were  made ;  but  as  a  general  fact,  the  workshops  and 
factories  of  the  country  were  in  Europe.  The  spirit  and  enterprise  of  Norwich 
had  been  wholly  diverted  into  the  channels  of  commerce,  and  future  pros- 
perity seemed  to  be  expected  only  from  the  ocean. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  the  paper-mill  at  the  falls 
was  the  only  establishment  of  any  kind  in  Norwich  worthy  the  name  of  a 
factory. 

The  Norwich  Falls  district,  now  so  busy,  bustling,  and  crowded  with 
inhabitants,  was  then  a  wild,  secluded  hamlet,  consisting  of  two  or  three 
old  mills  and  the  dwelling  house  of  Elijah  Lathrop.  Beautiful  was  the  place 
fur  all  the  purposes  of  romance  and  lonely  meditation — renowned  for  echoes 
and  evergreens,  the  chosen  resort  of  moonlight  parties,  curious  travelers,  and 
wandering  lovers — but  the  Genius  of  Manufacture  had  only  marked  it  for 
his  own ;  he  had  not  j^et  erected  his  standard  and  marshaled  his  legions  in 
the  valle)'.  In  relation  to  manufactures,  and  in  some  respects  it  would  apply, 
to  the  whole  business  of  the  town,  this  was  a  period  when  old  things  passed 
away,  and  all  things  became  new. 

Hemp. — In  the  year  1803,  Nathaniel  Rowland  8c  Co.  erected  a  building 
at  the  falls  for  hemp-spinning.  Mr.  Timothy  Lester  was  engaged  as  machin- 
ist; the  best  of  hatcheled  hemp  was  used,  and  the  warps  were  spun  by  a 
recently  improved  machine.  Looms  were  soon  introduced,  duck  and  canvas 
offered  for  sale  in  1804. 

The  Rowlands  appear  to  have  been  stimulated  to  this  undertaking  by  a 
visit  from  Mr.  Baxter,  a  noted  hemp-spinner  from  Great  Britain,  who  was 
engaged  in  introducing  the  manufacture  of  cordage  and  duck,  by  machinerj', 
into  this  country.  He  came  to  Norwich  to  survey  the  situation,  and  was 
satisfied  with  its  facilities,  but  was  not  himself  sufficiently  encouraged  to 
remain  and  conduct  the  experiment. 

Colonel  Rowland's  mil!  kept  on  its  way  for  a  few  years,  employing  from 
twelve  to  twenty  hands,  and  throwing  a  considerable  quantity  of  hempen 
cloth  into  the  market.  He  was  encouraged  in  his  operations  by  the  govern- 
ment.    Proffers  were  made  to  him  to  supply  the  navy  upon  cash  advances. 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  151 

and  a  small  bounty  was  granted  by  Congress  for  every  bolt  of  duck  pro- 
duced. But  the  business  could  not  withstand  the  pressure  of  the  times,  and 
was  overwhelmed  in  the  general  wreck  of  mercantile  aiTairs.  connected  with 
the  embargo  and  other  commercial  restrictions  of  that  period. 

Manufactures  at  the  Falls.- — The  rise  of  manufactures  after  this  period 
is  intimately  connected  with  several  prominent  individuals  who  removed 
to  the  place  from  other  parts  of  New  England — Calvin  Goddard  in  1807,  Wil- 
liam Williams  in  1809,  William  C.  Oilman  in  1816,  William  P.  Greene  in 
1824.  These  all  in  their  first  coming  to  Norwich  were  connected  with  the 
manufacturing  interest  at  the  Falls.  Though  not  natives,  they  are  wholly 
identified  with  the  place,  and  by  their  enterprise  and  their  liberal  and  enlight- 
ened course  as  citizens,  have  contributed  largely  to  its  prosperity. 

Mr.  Goddard  was  a  lawyer  and  statesman,  connected  with  the  manufac- 
turing interest  only  as  a  proprietor  and  patron.  Having  projected  an  estab- 
lishment at  the  Falls,  he  purchased  in  1800  the  old  Lathrop  house  and  mill- 
seats  of  that  district,  the  saw,  grist  and  oil  mills,  with  the  ancient  distillery 
and  tannery  lots  and  privileges,  and  formed  a  partnership  with  William 
Williams,  Sen.,  of  Stonington,  and  his  sons  (Wm.,  Jr.,  and  Thos.  W.), 
under  the  firm  of  William  Williams,  Jr.,  &  Co.,  one  of  the  younger  partners 
taking  the  principal  agency  in  the  business.  In  common  parlance,  however, 
the  firm  was  Goddard  &  Williams. 

This  company  set  up  the  machinery  necessary  for  grinding  and  bolting 
"Virginia  wheat  and  Southern  corn";  imported  their  grain,  and  obtained 
William  Weller,  an  experienced  miller  from  Pennsylvania,  for  their  foreman. 
They  kept  two  or  three  sloops  in  their  employ,  sailing  to  Norfolk,  Peters- 
burg, Fredericksburg,  and  Richmond.  In  1812,  they  fitted  out  the  schooner 
"Ann  and  Mary,"  and  sent  her  to  Cadiz  with  flour.  This  was  their  only 
foreign  adventure.  The  war  with  Great  Britain  throwing  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  trade  with  the  South,  the  flour  business  was  broken  up,  and  the  com- 
pany turned  their  attention  to  the  manufacture  of  cotton  cloth. 

The  Howland  duck  factory  was  changed  by  this  company  into  a  cotton 
mill,  which  began  to  run  in  December,  1813,  preceding  by  a  few  months  the 
cotton  factories  at  Jewett  City  and  Eozrahville.  They  began  with  carding 
and  spinning,  giving  out  the  yarn  from  the  factory  to  be  woven  in  hand-looms, 
but  after  three  or  four  years  the  power-loom  was  introduced,  and  they  turned 
out  mattresses,  nankeens  and  shirtings  in  a  completed  state. 

This  mill,  though  of  small  account  in  comparison  with  the  gigantic  opera- 
tions of  modern  times,  and  by  no  means  a  money-making  experiment  to  the 
proprietors,  merits  notice  as  one  of  the  first  cotton  mills  successfully  estab- 
lished in  the  country,  and  as  leading  the  way  to  undertakings  in  the  same 
line  far  more  extensive  and  important.  The  title  of  this  company  was  changed 
in  1819  to  Williams  Manufacturing  Co.  It  continued  only  a  few  rears  in 
active  operation,  but  its  afifairs  were  not  settled  and  the  pnrtnership  dissolved 
till  1833,  when  they  sold  out  to  Amos  Cobb  and  others,  agents  of  the  Norwich 
and  New  York  Manufacturing  Co. 

In  May,  1813,  William  C.  Oilman,  "late  of  Boston,"  purchased  a  privdege 
at  the  Falls  of  Goddard  &  Williams,  and  in  connection  with  the  Iron  and 
Nail  Co.  established  a  nailery,  which  went  immediately  into  successful  opera- 
tion. In  this  factory  the  nails  were  cut  by  a  newly-invented  machine  with 
great  rapidity,  and  while  the  novelty  lasted,  visitors  were  attracted  to  the 
falls  to  hear  the  clink  of  the  machine  and  view  the  continual  dropping  of  the 
nails. 

The  next  company  that  was  formed  commenced  business  with  promising 
aspects  upon  a  large  capital.     This  was  the  Thames  Manufacturing  Com- 


152  NEW  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

panv.  incorporated  in  June.  1823.  It  consisted  of  six  members,  viz.,  Wm. 
C.  Oilman,  Samuel.  Henr}-  and  John  Hubbard,  Wm.  P.  and  Benjamin  Greene. 
Five  of  these  partners  were  Boston  men,  to  whose  favorable  notice  the  water 
privileges  that  lay  unemployed  at  the  falls  had  been  forcibly  presented  by 
Mr.   Oilman. 

This  company  purchased  the  naillery  and  several  other  water  privileges 
at  the  falls,  and  erected  a  large  cotton  factory,  preparing  for  a  business  of 
considerable  extent  and  value.  The  corner-stone  of  the  building  was  laid 
with  interesting  ceremonies,  and  Judge  Goddard  delivered  an  address,  wel- 
coming the  new  company  to  that  secluded  seat.  William  P.  Greene,  one  of 
the  Boston  partners,  became  a  resident  in  Xorwich,  and  for  a  few  years  Mr. 
Greene  and  William  C.  Oilman  transacted  together  the  business  of  the  com- 
pany. Mr.  Greene  then  resigned,  and  Mr.  Oilman  was  afterward  the  sole 
agent  of  the  concern. 

The  Ouinebaug  Company.,  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  and  woolen 
goods,  was  chartered  in  1826.  The  mill  erected  by  this  company  on  the 
Shetucket  river  was  purchased  by  the  Thames  Company  before  it  went  into 
operation,  and  was  considered  by  its  new  owners  as  the  most  valuable  of 
their  possessions.    This  mil!  was  the  beginning  of  Greenville. 

The  Thames  Company  purchased  likewise  the  mill  at  Bozrahville,  built 
by  Messrs.  Dodge  and  Hyde  in  181 5,  and  in  their  best  days  had  the  three 
mills — in  Bozrah.  at  the  Falls,  and  on  the  Shetucket— in  successful  operation. 

Another  company  with  similar  objects  and  expectations,  called  the  Nor- 
wich &  New  York  Manufacturing  Co..  was  incorporated  in  1829.  Some  of 
the  partners  belonged  also  to  the  Thames  Company,  but  they  were  distinct 
concerns.  To  this  new  incorporation  the  Thames  Company  sold  the  Falls 
mill.  This  company  purchased  also  the  mills  and  m.achinery  of  Huntington 
and  Backus  on  Bean  Hill. 

In  1833,  a  large  cotton  mill,  two  paper  mills,  an  iron  foundry,  nail  fac- 
tor}' and  rolling  mill  were  reported  in  successful  operation  at  the  Falls. 

But  this  prosperity  was  of  short  duration.  Both  the  Thames  Company 
and  the  Norwich  and  New  York  Company  became  involved  in  the  mercantile 
disasters  that  so  widely  affected  the  business  of  the  country,  and  went  down 
in  the  financial  crash  of  1837.  The  two  mills  belonging  to  the  Thames  Com- 
pany were  purchased  nominally  by  Mr.  Oilman — the  mortgages  nearly  equal- 
ing the  value— and  conveyed  by  him  to  other  parties:  the  Quinebaug  mill  to 
Mr.  Caliph,  and  the  mill  at  Bozrah  to  Mr.  James  Boorman  of  New  York.  A 
period  of  great  depression  and  stagnation  of  business  ensued. 

Fresh  undertakings  of  a  more  enduring  nature  arose  out  of  these  reverses. 
Two  new  companies  were  formed  under  the  auspices  of  Wm.  P.  Greene — the 
Shetucket  Company  and  the  Norwich  Falls  Company.  Both  went  into  pros- 
perous operation  between  1838  and  1842.  , 

The  Shetucket  Company  purchased  the  misnamed  Quinebaug  mill  on 
the  Shetucket.  The  building  was  burnt  down  in  May,  1842.  and  the  present 
mill,  of  far  greater  capacity,  standing  on  the  same  spot,  is  called  the  She- 
tucket mill.     It  is  the  great  cotton  mil!  of  Greeneville. 

The  Falls  Company  purchased  the  mill  at  the  Falls,  which  had  formerly 
belonged  to  the  Thames  Company.  This  has  since  been  enlarged  to  almost 
three  times  its  former  size  and  power,  and  has  kept  on  from  that  time  to 
the  present,  without  any  suspension  of  its  acitvitv  or  check  to  its  prosperity. 

These  companies  were  established  by  Mr.  Greene,  chiefly  upon  his  own 
credit,  and  were  kept  while  he  lived  under  his  management  and  direction. 
The  business  has  been  gradually  extending,  and  for  several  years  each  mill 
has  had  15.000  spindles  in  operation. 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  153 

The  manufacture  of  paper  at  the  Falls  has  of  late  3'ears  been  connected 
exclusively  with  the  name  of  Hubbard.  Amos  H.  Hubbard  entered  into  the 
business  in  1818.  Paper  was  at  that  time  made  in  the  old  way ;  not  by 
machinery,  but  by  hand,  sheet  by  sheet.  Mr.  Hubbard  very  soon  furnished 
his  establishment  with  the  modern  improvements  that  diminish  the  amount 
of  manual  labor  required.  In  1830  he  successfully  introduced  Fourdrinier's 
machine  into  his  factory.  This  was  the  first  paper-making  machine  used  in 
Norwich. 

The  brothers  Russell  and  A.  H.  Hubbard  were  in  partnership  in  this 
business  for  twenty  years,  but  dissolved  in  1857.  They  had  two  mills — the 
old  wooden  building  erected  by  Messrs.  Huntington  and  Bushnell  in  1790, 
and  a  modern  one,  built  of  brick  and  stone,  both  of  which,  with  various  lots, 
tenements  and  water-privileges,  were  sold  by  A.  H.  Hubbard  in  i860  to 
the  Falls  Company.  Mr.  Hubbard  then  removed  his  establishment  to  Greene- 
ville  on  the  Shetucket. 

According  to  the  census  of  i860,  the  great  cotton  mill  at  the  Falls  em- 
ployed 125  males  and  375  females;  producing  annually  six  and  a  half  million 
yards,  valued  at  $450,000. 

The  Falls  Company  has  from  time  to  time  purchased  the  various  privi- 
leges in  its  neighborhood,  and  now  controls  nearly  the  whole  water  power 
at  Yantic  Falls,  and  at  the  old  paper-mill  above  the  falls.  The  nailleries, 
foundries,  pistol  factories,  the  paper,  flour  and  oil  mills,  have  all  disappeared, 
*heir  seats  and  privileges  passed  over  to  this  company,  and  their  various 
:rafts  transferred  to  other  localities.  In  this  valley  of  the  roaring  waters, 
in  i860.  Cotton  reigned  the  sole  and  undisputed  king. 

This  sovereignty  has  been  recently  invaded  by  the  occupation  of  a 
hitherto  unemplo3'ed  mill-seat  near  the  railroad  bridge.  Here  a  large  brick 
building,  erected  by  C.  A.  Converse  in  1864,  furnishes  accommodation  to  a 
grist  mill  and  the  thriving  cork  factory  of  Messrs.  J.  H,  Adams  and  James 
E.  Teamed. 

The  cork-cutting  business  is  one  of  the  specialties  of  Norwich,  this 
being  the  place  where  an  ingenious  machine  for  transforming  sheets  of 
bark  into  well-shaped  corks  was  invented  and  set  in  operation,  and  where 
the  business  is  prosecuted  with  a  success  that  promises  to  make  it  one  of 
the  permanent  industrial  pursuits  of  the  town. 

The  corks  used  in  this  country  had  been  mostly  imported  from  Europe, 
where  they  were  all  made  by  hand.  Vast  quantities  were  required  to  supply 
the  market,  and  a  machine  that  would  abridge  the  labor  and  cheapen  the 
irticle  was  a  desideratum.  This  furnished  by  the  machines  invented  and 
patented  by  the  brothers  Crocker,  of  Norwich. 

William  R.  Crocker,  the  first  inventor,  after  many  experiments,  brought 
his  machine  into  successful  operation,  and  procured  a  patent  for  it,  bearing 
the  date  of  October  30,  1855.  This  machine  produced  from  twenty  to  thirty- 
finished  corks  per  minute,  turning  them  out  in  better  coadition  than  those 
made  by  hand.  In  1859  the  inventor  went  to  Europe,  accompanied  by  a 
younger  brother,  to  dispose  of  rights  in  his  patent.  On  their  return  in  the 
steamer  Hungarian,  they  both  perished  in  the  wreck  of  that  vessel  on  the 
coast  of  Newfoundland,  February  15,  i860. 

But  the  business  of  cork-cutting,  commenced  by  them  in  Norwich,  has 
been  continued  by  Messrs.  Barnes  &  Spalding,  the  proprietors  of  their  pat- 
ented machine. 

Another  machine  of  different  structure,  but  for  the  same  purpose,  was 
invented  by  a  third  brother,  John  D.  Crocker,  and  patented  in  1862.  This 
patent  is  the  one  employed  in  the  factory  at  Yantic  Falls. 


154  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Uncas  Mill. — In  the  earlj-  part  of  the  century,  at  Bean  Hill,  in  a  turn  of 
the  Yantic  and  on  both  sides  of  it,  we  find  a  grist  mill  of  ancient  date,  the 
fulling  mill  and  carding  machine  of  Erastus  Huntington  and  Eber  Backus, 
the  stoiie  ware  factory  of  Armstrong  &  Wentworth,  and  the  machine  shop 
of  James  Burnham.  Mr.  Burnham  constructed  carding  machines,  looms, 
and  other  kinds  of  machinery,  but  died  on  the  island  of  Madeira  in  1813. 

The  establishment  of  Huntington  &  Backus  was  purchased  in  1828  for 
$9,000.  by  a  company  organized  that  year  and  called  the  Norwich  Manufac- 
turing Company.  This  company  established  a  woolen  mill  on  the  premises, 
since  known  as  the  Uncas  Woolen  Mill.  The  ownership  has  since  been 
several  times  changed.  In  1859,  F.  B.  Loomis,  proprietor,  the  census  reported 
the  annual  produce  150,000  yards  of  doeskins,  valued  at  $175,000.  Mr.  Loomis 
sold  out  in  i860  to  Wm.  Elting  &  Company.  The  Elting  Woolen  Company 
has  since  been  organized,  with  a  capital  of  $150,000. 

.■\nother  woolen  mill,  at  a  lower  point  on  the  river  in  Norwich-Town,  was 
run  for  several  years  by  Peter  Lanman.  The  site  is  now  occupied  by  a  mill 
of  larger  size  and  a  group  of  neat  tenements  built  by  A.  T.  Sturtevant. 

Timothy  Green,  of  New  London,  who  was  then  printer  to  the  colony, 
opened  a  printing  office  in  this  town  early  in  1773,  and  in  company  with 
Judah  Paddock  Spooner,  his  brother-in-law,  prosecuted  the  business  until 
1778.  At  that  time  the  people  of  Vermont  had  just  completed  an  independent 
State  government,  although  they  were  in  the  asserted  limits  of  the  State  of 
New  York.  Upon  invitation  of  the  government  of  the  new  State,  Green  and 
Spooner  removed  their  office  from  Norwich  to  Westminster,  Vermont,  where 
they  established  the  first  newspaper  printed  in  that  State,  under  the  title  of 
"The  Vermont  Gazette,  or  Green  Mountain  Post  Boy."  The  motto  of  this 
paper  was  indicative  of  the  spirit  of  the  times :  , 

"Pliant  as  reeds  where  streams  of  Freedom  glide; 
Firm  as  the  hills  to  stem  oppression's  tide." 

The  other  printing  office  established  in  this  town  in  1773  was  by  a  com- 
pany consisting  of  Alexander  and  James  Robertson,  who  had  emigrated  from 
Scotland  to  Albany,  and  from  Albany  came  here,  and  John  Trumbull,  a 
native  of  Charlestown,  Mass.  In  the  month  of  October,  in  that  year,  they 
issued  the  first  number  of  "The  Norwich  Packet,  and  the  Connecticut,  Massa- 
chusetts, New  Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island  Weekly  Advertiser."  "The 
Packet"  was  continued  by  this  company  until  1776,  when  the  Robertsons, 
being  Tories,  were  obliged  to  leave  Norwich.  They  went  to  New  York,  and 
on  the  conclusion  of  the  war  took  up  their  residence  in  the  British  province 
of  Nova  Scotia.  Trumbull  conducted  the  paper  alone  till  his  death  in  1802. 
The  title  was  then  changed  to  the  "Connecticut  Centinel,"  and  printed  but 
a  short  time  for  the  benefit  of  his  widow,  Lucy  Trumbull. 

On  the  29th  of  November.  1791,  Ebenezer  Bushnell  issued  the  first  num- 
ber of  "The  Weekly  Register."  In  the  issue  of  that  paper  of  the  7th  of 
June  following,  Bushnell  announces  that  he  has  associated  with  himself 
Thomas  Hubbard  "In  the  Printing  and  Stocking  Weaving  business."  This 
firm  continued  until  October  i,  1793,  when  Bushnell  retired,  leaving  the  busi- 
ness in  the  hands  of  Hubbard.     In   1796,  the  office  was  removed  from  the 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  155 

Town  to  the  Landing,  then  called  Chelsea  Landing,  and  the  title  of  the 
paper  changed  to  "The  Chelsea  Courier."  On  the  20th  of  November,  1805, 
Thomas  Hubbard  retired  from  the  paper,  leaving  as  his  successor  his  son, 
Russell  Hubbard,  who  soon  changed  the  title  to  "The  Norwich  Courier,"  by 
which  title  it  has  ever  since  been  known.  In  February,  1817,  Mr.  Hubbard 
formed  a  co-partnership  with  Theophilus  R.  Marvin,  and  under  the  firm  of 
Hubbard  &  Marvin,  the  "Courier"  was  continued  until  1819,  when  Marvin 
removed  to  Boston.  In  April,  1822,  the  paper  was  purchased  by  Thomas 
Robinson  and  John  Dunham,  and  continued  by  them  until  March,  1825, 
when  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  Dunham,  who  retained  it  until  1842.  In 
September,  1842,  Dorson  E.  Sykes  assumed  the  control  of  the  "Courier," 
and  retained  it  until  March,  1859,  when  he  retired,  and  the  paper  was  pur- 
chased by  George  B.  Smith.  In  the  August  following.  Smith's  affairs  were 
involved  in  bankruptcy,  and  the  "Courier"  was  managed  by  his  trustee. 

In  1803,  John  Sterry  and  Epaphras  Porter  issued  the  "True  Republican," 
of  which  Consider  Sterry  was  editor,  and  continued  the  same  for  about  four 
years. 

In  January,  1829,  the  "Norwich  Republican,"  by  Boardman  &  Faulkner, 
made  its  appearance.  It  soon  passed  into  the  possession  of  Adams  &  Faulk- 
ner; they  retiring,  it  was  published  till  April,  1835,  by  Melza  Gardner.  At 
that  time  it  was  purchased  by  Marcus  B.  Young,  its  political  character  was 
changed,  and  L.  F.  S.  Foster  assumed  the  editorial  charge.  The  "Republican" 
was  discontinued  in  1838. 

In  May.  1835,  James  Holbrook  issued  the  first  number  of  "The  Norwich 
Aurora."  He  continued  its  publication  till  June,  1838,  when  Gad  S.  Gilbert 
purchased  it  and  conducted  it  till  March  24,  1841.  From  that  time  until 
August  8,  1844,  it  was  successively  conducted  by  William  Trench  and  Trench 
&  Conklin. 

From  1843  till  1848,  "The  Norwich  News"  was  published  by  William 
Faulkner. 

Of  the  other  newspapers  which  have  had  an  ephemeral  existence  in 
Norwich,  the  following  may  be  mentioned : 

"The  Canal  of  Intelligence,"  by  Levi  Huntington  Young,  commenced 
in  1826.  "The  Norwich  Spectator,"  by  Park  Benjamin  and  M.  B.  Young, 
commenced  in  November,  1829;  revived  in  1842  by  John  G.  Cooley,  and  con- 
tinued for  a  short  time.  "The  Norwich  Free  Press,"  by  M.  B.  Young, 
February,  1830.  "The  Norwich  Gleaner,"  by  B.  F.  Taylor,  in  1845.  "The 
American  Patriot,"  by  the  friends  of  General  Taylor,  1848.  "The  Norwich 
Tribune,"  by  Charles  B.  Piatt  and  Edmund  C.  Stedman,  in  1852.  "The  Nor- 
wich Examiner,"  by  Andrew  Stark,  in  1853.  "The  State  Guard,"  by  the  same 
publisher,  in  1855. 

In  August,  1859,  the  press  of  Norwich  was  as  follows:  "The  Norwich 
Courier."  published  by  the  trustee  of  the  estate  of  George  B.  Smith.  "The 
Norwich  Aurora,"  by  John  W.  Stedman.  "The  Morning  Bulletin,"  by  Man- 
ning, Perry  &  Co.,  established  in  December,  1858.     "The  Weekly  Reveille," 


136  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

by  Walter  S.  Robinson   (suspended).     "The  Free  Academy  Journal,"  pub- 
lished by  the  students  of  the  Free  Academy. 

For  the  Norwich  Jubilee  in  1859  the  following  article  was  prepared  by 
Ashbel  Woodward,  M.D.,  president  of  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society: 

Of  the  physicians  generally  of  the  American  colonial  period,  little  is  now 
known.  As  a  class  they  were  unambitious  to  participate  in  the  deliberations 
of  public  councils,  or  take  the  lead  in  advocacy  of  popular  measures,  so  that 
only  few  names  became  prominently  identified  with  local  or  general  history. 
Manv  devoted  to  the  duties  of  their  calling  the  undivided  energies  of  long 
and  laborious  lives,  reaping  only  a  scanty  pecuniary  recompense  for  the 
present,  and  no  place  at  all  in  the  grateful  recollection  of  posterity.  Respected 
and  loved  by  cotemporaries  with  that  respect  and  love  which  strikes  such 
deep  root  and  blossoms  so  beautifully  in  the  chamber  of  suffering,  they  were 
too  frequently  forgotten  when  their  own  generation  had  passed  away. 

No  systematic  account  of  the  early  physicians  of  Norwich  has  hitherto 
been  given.  The  materials  for  such  a  work  are  fragmentary,  and  collectible 
only  with  great  difficulty  and  labor.  Public  records  afford  little  assistance, 
while  the  scanty  aid  they  might  otherwise  render  is  still  further  impaired  by 
the  general  absence  of  the  titular  appendage  from  the  names.  Another 
peculiar  circumstance  of  the  present  case  cuts  us  off  from  one  source  of 
information,  which,  in  many  localities,  is  highly  fruitful.  During  the  early 
colonial  period  (as  has  almost  always  been  true  in  the  infancy  of  nations) 
the  professions  of  theology  and  medicine  frequently  met  in  the  hands  of  the 
same  incumbent,  the  cure  of  fleshly  ills  being  esteemed  an  incidental  con- 
comitant to  the  cure  of  the  more  dangerous  maladies  of  the  soul.  These 
clerical  physicians,  exercising  their  double  vocation  amid  a  people  justly 
celebrated  for  affectionate  attachment  to  the  expounders  of  the  divine  oracles, 
were  often  minutely  remembered  and  described  for  after  time,  in  virtue  of  the 
popularity  of  the  priestly  office.  But  in  Norwich,  the  two  professions  were 
kept  entirely  distinct  from  the  beginning,  so  that  ecclesiastical  writings  in  all 
the  multifarious  forms  they  then  assumed,  are  wholly  unavailing  to  the  biog- 
rapher of  her  early  doctors. 

Of  some  of  these,  almost  the  only  memorials  are  the  precarious  inscrip- 
tions of  moss-grown  and  neglected  tomb  stones.  Others  whose  days  of  toil 
and  nights  of  watching  in  alleviation  of  human  pain  were  otherwise  forgotten, 
still  live  in  the  hearts  of  their  descendants,  and  in  traditions  floating  downward 
in  the  same  current  with  their  blood.  The  names  of  several  enter  largely 
into  cotemporary  records,  whereby  we  may  infer  the  prominency  of  their 
influence,  though  the  various  proceedings  they  shared  in.  and  the  trusts 
imposed  upon  them  must  here  be  passed  in  silence  as  too  commonplace  for 
exhumation  in  our  brief  tribute  to  their  memory.  Yet  it  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that,  as  a  citizen,  one  may  be  pre-eminently  useful,  and  still  perform 
few  actions  whose  recital  either  interests  the  attention  or  quickens  the  pulses 
of  postrity. 

The  medical  profession  in  ancient  Norwich  was  more  than  respectable; 
was  distinguished.  As  practitioners  and  teachers,  several  of  its  members 
had  few  superiors  on  the  continent.  As  reformers  of  abuses  and  fearless 
advocates  of  salutary  though  unpopular  changes,  they  held  pace  in  the  fore- 
most rank.  In  the  year  1763,  prior  to  any  attempts  at  medical  organization 
elsewhere  on  the  continent,  Theophilus  Rogers,  with  ten  others,  petitioned 
the  colonial  legislature  for  the  charter  of  a  medical  society.  This  movement, 
made  in  advance  of  the  age,  was  negatived  in  the  lower  house.     Still  it  indi- 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  157 

cates  one  of  the  most  important  crises  in  the  history  of  the  profession.  The 
presentation  of  that  unpretending  Norwich  memorial  was  the  initiative  step 
in  a  series  of  efforts  which  have  since  resulted  in  the  permanent  establish- 
ment of  many  flourishing  State  associations,  and  within  a  few  years  of  the 
national  society,  which  has  contributed  in  a  high  degree  to  purify  the  ranks. 
elevate  the  aims  and  make  a  real  unit  and  fraternity  of  the  profession  in 
America.  In  the  attempt  alluded  to.  it  was  not  the  object  of  the  petitioners 
to  secure  any  immunities  or  exclusive  privileges  for  themselves,  but  to  pro- 
tect the  health  of  the  community  by  additional  securities.  At  that  time  there 
was  no  authority  in  the  state  legally  qualified  to  confer  degrees  in  a  way 
to  discriminate  the  man  of  solid  acquirements  from  the  ignorant  pretender. 
Many,  without  either  study  or  natural  aptitude  for  the  exercise  of  the  calling, 
by  shameless  vauntings  imposed  upon  a  credulous  populace,  and  by  assuming 
their  title  brought  discredit  upon  honorable  men.  Our  Norwich  memorialists 
wished  to  strike  at  the  root  of  this  disgusting  and  rampant  empiricism.  To 
shut  down  the  flood  gates  through  which  their  ranks  were  inundated  by 
incessant  streams  of  ignorance  and  charlatanry,  to  establish  a  standard  of 
education  by  making  a  respectable  amount  of  attainments  an  indispensable 
requisite  to  the  acquirement  of  the  title,  they  asked  for  the  appointment  of 
a  committee  legally  authorized  to  examine  and  approve  candidates,  if  found 
qualified.  Thus  Norwich,  though  unsuccessful  in  her  first  attempt,  was  the 
pioneer  in  the  cause  of  American  medical  organization. 

As  early  as  1785,  when  there  were  but  two  medical  schools  in  the  whole 
country,  Drs.  Philip  Turner  and  Philemon  Tracy  issued  proposals  for  the 
delivery  of  a  series  of  lectures  to  students  on  "Anatomy.  Physic,  Surgery,  &c." 
As  additional  incentives  to  induce  the  "rising  sons  of  yEsculapius"  to  improve 
the  facilities  proffered  to  them,  they  tendered  the  free  use  of  a  "complete 
library  of  ancient  and  modern  authors,"  together  with  "the  advantage  of 
being  present  at  capital  operations,  dissections,  S:c."  The  prospectus  goes 
on  to  state,  "Every  attention  will  be  paid  by  the  subscribers  to  render  their 
lectures  both  useful  and  pleasing,  their  constant  endeavors  will  be  to  facilitate 
the  instruction,  direct  with  propriety  the  judgment,  correct  the  errors,  and 
increase  the  knowledge  of  the  pupils  in  their  study." 

Another  interesting  point  in  the  history  of  Norwich  was  the  long  and 
bitter  controversy  between  the  advocates  and  opponents  of  inoculation  for 
small  pox.  At  that  period  this  disease  v.-as  the  most  formidable  scourge  of 
humanity.  There  was  no  place  of  refuge  from  its  ravages,  nor  means  of 
mitigating  the  fury  of  its  poison.  Inoculation  having  been  practiced  with  suc- 
cess in  Turkey,  had  recently,  through  Cotton  Mather's  influence,  been  intro- 
duced into  the  colonies.  Commencing  in  1760,  for  many  years  several  of  the 
more  prominent  physicians  of  Norw-ich  struggled  assiduously  to  establish  the 
practice  against  the  inveterate  prejudices  of  the  community.  A  popular  vote 
authorized  pest  houses,  passed  after  the  lapse  of  a  third  of  a  century,  shows 
hov/  obstinately  the  public  contended  before  yielding  to  the  superior  argu- 
ments of  the  profession. 

The  following  account  of  Lincoln's  visit  to  Norwich,  prepared  by  Mr. 
Francis  J.  Leavens,  has  never  been  published: 

One  morning  in  March,  i860,  I  was  standing  with  three  or  four  of  my 
classmates  of  the  junior  class  in  the  Norwich  Free  Academy  when  one  of  the 
older  boys  of  the  senior  class  came  up  to  us  and  said,  "Boys,  if  vou  want  to 
hear  a  regular  western  stump  speaker,  go  down  to  the  Town  Hall  tomorrow 
night."  "Who  is  he?"  we  asked,  and  the  answer  came,  "A  man  from  Illinois 
named  Lincoln,  and  they  say  he  is  great." 


158  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

A  man  from  Illinois  named  Lincoln  meant  nothing  to  us.  We  had  never 
heard  of  him.  but  we  had  heard  of  stump  speakers,  though  we  had  not  seen 
or  heard  one.  Buffalo  Bill's  Wild  West  Show  had  not  begun  to  make  its 
annual  visits  to  New  England,  and  none  of  us  had  been  west.  "Stump  speaker" 
sounded  good  to  us  and  we  decided  to  go. 

Bo3'S  are  not  apt  to  be  late  at  anything  likely  to  interest  them,  and  four 
of  us  were  among  the  earliest  arrivals  at  the  Town  Hall.  We  seated  our- 
selves on  the  front  bench,  and  when  Mr.  Lincoln  took  his  place  behind  the 
bar  that  ran  along  the  front  of  the  platform  he  was  not  six  feet  away  from 
us.  In  fact,  when  he  leaned  forward  and  swung  his  long  arms  in  gestures  it 
seemed  as  if  we  were  in  danger  of  being  struck. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  his  appearance ;  that  has  been  done  by 
many  who  were  intimately  associated  with  him,  while  artists  and  sculptors 
liave  faithfully  portrayed  his  form  and  features.  I  remember  that  he  was 
dressed  in  a  black  suit  and  that  he  wore  a  wide  turnover  collar  and  a  black 
silk  sailor's  tie,  both  of  which  were  striking  and  unusual  in  this  region. 

At  this  distance  of  time  I  cannot  undertake  to  report  what  he  said,  but 
we  four  boys  sat  on  that  front  bench  till  ten  o'clock,  our  eyes  never  leaving 
him,  notwithstanding  we  had  to  keep  our  heads  raised  at  an  uncomfortable 
angle  as  he  towered  above  us.  I  have  heard  many  famous  orators  since,  but 
never  have  I  listened  to  one  with  such  rapt  attention,  and  no  one  ever  made 
such  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  upon  me. 

His  speech  was  richly  illustrated  with  stories  and  was  frequently  inter- 
rupted by  vigorous  applause.  One  story  I  remember  was  about  a  young 
farmer  who  in  some  way  opened  up  a  nest  of  large  and  active  black  snakes, 
and  as  Mr.  Lincoln  described  the  terrible  combat  that  followed  his  body 
swayed,  his  long  black  arms  and  his  fingers  were  writhing  and  twisting  till 
even  the  Laocoon  itself  was  not  more  realistic.  That  picture  is  as  plain  in 
my  mind's  eye  today  as  it  was  fifty-seven  years  ago. 

The  next  morning  two  of  us  on  our  way  to  school  reached  a  cross  street 
and  looking  down  saw  two  other  bo>s  approaching  who  had  also  been  there. 
In  an  instant,  without  a  word,  four  pairs  of  arms  were  writhing  in  the  air 
and  any  stranger  who  had  seen  us  would  have  surely  thought  us  crazy.  All 
that  day,  a^id  for  manj'  days,  those  writhing  arms  were  the  countersign,  and 
"snakes"  the  password  for  the  boys  who  had  heard  Abraham  Lincoln. 

After  the  meeting  was  over  a  large  number  of  citizens  adjourned  to  the 
Wauregan  House  where  Mr.  Lincoln  was  entertained,  and  had  a  most  enjoy- 
able after  meeting  with  refreshments  and  more  stories  from  Lincoln.  About 
midnight,  as  it  was  known  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  to  leave  for  New  Haven  at 
six  the  next  morning,  the  company  reluctantly  broke  up  and  bid  him  good 
night. 

There  was  left,  however,  one  gentleman,  Mr.  John  F.  Trumbull,  of 
Stonington,  who  had  come  some  distance  to  attend  the  meeting  and  was  spend- 
ing the  night  at  the  Wauregan.  Mr.  Trumbull  had  a  very  considerable  repu- 
tation as  a  political  speaker  and  story  teller,  and  after  the  others  were  gone 
he  and  Mr.  Lincoln  sat  and  talked  for  an  hour  in  the  parlor  and  then  went 
up  stairs  together.  When  they  reached  the  door  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  room  some- 
thing interesting  was  unfinished,  so  Trumbull  went  in  and  they  talked  on 
till  the  town  clock  in  the  Baptist  church  nearby  struck  two,  when  Mr.  Trum- 
bull apologized  and  went  out.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  removed  his  coat,  vest, 
collar  and  shoes  and  was  rapidly  preparing  for  bed  when  there  was  a  knock 
on  the  door  and  there  stood  Trumbull.  "Oh!"  he  said,  "I  have  just  thought 
of  one  more  story  I  must  tell  you."  And  they  sat  down  beside  each  other  on 
the  bed  and  swapped   stories   for  three-quarters  of   an  hour   more.     It  was 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  isg 

nearly  three  when  the  final  adjournment  took  place,  and  Lincoln  was  called 
at  five  to  make  ready  for  New  Haven. 

This  latter  part  of  the  story  was  told  me  j'ears  after  by  my  friend,  Col. 
H.  H.  Osgood,  who  was  a  member  of  Governor  Buckingham's  military  staff. 
The  Connecticut  State  elections  at  that  time  were  held  in  April,  and  Lincoln's 
speeches  in  our  State  were  part  of  the  campaign  for  Governor  Buckingham's) 
re-election. 

It  was  through  the  efforts  of  Colonel  Osgood  that  Mr.  Lincoln  came  to 
Norwich.  He  had  heard  of  the  wonderful  impression  made  by  the  Cooper 
Union  speech,  and.  as  Hartford  was  one  of  his  first  assignments  in  New 
England,  Colonel  Osgood  went  there  and  heard  him,  then,  procuring  an  intro- 
duction, invited  him  to  come  to  Norwich.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  pleased  with  the 
invitation,  but  said  that  it  was  absolutely  impossible,  as  his  route  had  been 
carefully  laid  out  and  there  was  no  possibility  of  taking  on  another  engage- 
ment. At  that  time  railroad  trains  were  very  few  and  very  slow,  but  Colonel 
Osgood  was  familiar  with  time  tables,  and  he  looked  over  the  speaker's 
schedules  and  at  last  said,  "You  can  do  it.  You  can  come  between  Providence 
and  New  Haven."  "Young  man,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "demonstrate  it."  So 
thoroughly  did  Colonel  Osgood  demonstrate  it  that  Mr.  Lincoln  promised  to 
come,  and  he  did  come.  I  shall  never  cease  to  be  thankful  that  I  was  per- 
mitted to  see  and  hear  him. 

Once  again  I  saw  him.  It  was  in  the  spring  of  1864,  during  my  vacation 
from  college.  I  was  making  a  visit  with  relatives  in  Baltimore  and  they 
took  me  for  a  day  in  Washington.  We  went,  of  course,  to  the  White  House, 
and  while  looking  about  in  the  East  Room,  which  is  always  open  to  the 
public,  the  usher  stationed  in  the  hall  came  to  me  and  said,  "The  President 
is  just  coming  in  from  the  War  Department.  If  you  would  like  to  see  him. 
just  come  and  stand  in  the  doorway  of  this  room."  It  was  at  a  dark  period 
of  the  war,  heavy  fighting  had  been  going  on  for  several  days,  but  without 
any  satisfactory  results.  The  porch  door  was  opened  and  the  President 
came  in,  but  oh !  how  changed.  His  step  was  slow,  his  shoulders  were  bent, 
and  his  face  told  most  plainly  the  stpry  of  the  great  burden  that  he  was 
carrying.  He  started  slowly  up  the  broad  staircase,  when  a  small  man  who 
had  been  standing  in  th^  hall  ran  quickly  up  behind  him  and  spoke  to  him  as 
he  reached  the  broad  stair,  introducing  himself  as  a  professor  in  some  fresh 
water  college  in  Ohio.  I  could  not  hear  much  that  he  said,  and  I  think  that 
the  President  heard  none  of  it,  for  he  stood  there  very  quiet,  but  with  such  a 
faraway  weary  look  in  his  burdened  face  that  I  felt  his  thoughts  were  with 
the  boys  in  blue  and  the  boys  in  gray  fighting  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness, 

while  the  little  man's  tongue  babbled  on.    Why  is  it  that  there  are  some 

who  will  rush  in  where  angels  dare  not  tread? 

A  year  later,  during  my  spring  vacation,  the  dreadful  news  of  the  assas- 
sination came  one  Saturday  morning.  It  was  like  a  national  stroke  of  par- 
alysis, men  stopped  whatever  they  were  doing  and  little  business  was  resumed 
that  day.  That  Saturday  night,  three  other  members  of  the  Broadway 
Church,  with  myself,  having  secured  several  pieces  of  black  cloth,  by  working 
till  midnight,  managed  to  drape  the  interior  of  the  church,  and  Sunday  morn- 
ing Rev.  John  P.  Gulliver,  who  always  rose  to  a  great  occasion,  preached  a 
masterful  discourse  on  the  text,  "It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come,  but 
woe  unto  him  by  whom  the  offence  cometh."* 

The  following  data  covering  the  founders  of  Norwich  were  compiled  from 
various  sources  for  the  quarter-millcnial  celebration  in  1909: 

I.  Deacon  Thomas  Adgate,  1649.     Born  about  1620;  died  1707.     One  of 


i6o  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

those   appointed   to   "dignify   the   pues."      His   house   was   on   north   end    of 
Lowthrope  Meadows. 

2.  Robert  Allyn,  1659.  "First  constable  in  the  Town."  Died  1683,  at 
Allyn's  Point. 

3.  Wm.  Backus,  1659.  Died  soon  after  the  settlement.  His  home-lot 
was  next  north  of  Thomas  Bliss,  from  Washington  street  to  the  river.  Father 
of  Stephen  Backus. 

4.  Lieut.  Wm.  Backus,  Jr.,  16.^9.  He  styled  himself  "yeoman,"  but  was 
known  successively  as  .'sergeant,  ensign  and  lieutenant. 

5.  John  Baldwin,  1659.  Constable  in  1696.  Ancestor  of  Judge  Simeon 
E.  Baldwin  of  New  Haven.     Home-lot  on  West  Town  street,  near  the  river. 

6.  Deacon  Thomas  Bingham,  1659.  Born  1642;  died  1730.  Home-lot  on 
West  Town  street  above  Thomas  Waterman  and  extending  to  the  river. 

7.  John  Birchard,  1659.  Born  1628;  died  1702.  First  schoolmaster. 
Home-lot  on  West  Town  street,  opposite  Samuel  and  William  Hyde. 

8.  Thomas  Bliss,  1659.  Died  1688.  Home-lot  on  Washington  street 
adjoining  John  Reynolds.     His  house  is  still  standing. 

9.  Morgan  Bowers,  1659.  Home-lot  on  West  Town  street  adjoining 
John  Post. 

10.  John  Bradford,  1659.  Son  of  Governor  Bradford,  of  Plymouth. 
Townsman  in  1671.     Home-lot  on  East  Town  street  west  of  Huntington  lane. 

11.  Deacon  Hugh  Caulkins,  1659.  Born  1600;  died  1690.  One  of  the  most 
useful  men  of  his  time.     Home-lot  on  West  Town  street. 

I.  John  Caulkins,  1659.  Born  1634;  died  1703.  Active  in  town  affairs. 
Home-lot  on  ^^'est  Town  street. 

13.  Richard  Edgerton,   1659.     Died  in   1692.     Townsman  and  constable. 

14.  Rev.  James  Fitch,  1659.  Born  1622;  died  1702.  First  pastor  of 
First  Church  in  Norwich;  held  the  office  fifty-six  years.  Called  by  Cotton 
Mather,  "the  holy,  acute  and  learned  Mr.  Fitch."  Home-lot  from  Simon 
Huntington  to  the  river. 

15.  John  Gager,  1659.  Died  1703.  Constable  in  1674  and  1688.  He  was 
son  of  William  Gager,  "a  right  godly  man  and  skillful  chyrurgeon." 

16.  Lieut  Francis  Griswold,  1659.  Born  1622;  died  1671  Represente'' 
the  town  in  the  General  Court  in  eleven  sessions.  Home-lot  on  West  Towi, 
street. 

17.  Christopher  Huntington,  1659.  First  townsman.  Died  1691.  One 
of  the  most  useful  of  the  pioneers.  Home-lot  on  Washington  street  corner 
of  East  Town  street. 

18.  Deacon  .Simon  Huntington,  1659.  Born  1629;  died  1706.  Townsman 
in  1690  and  1696.  Home-lot  on  south  side  of  East  Tov^-n  street  west  of  Lieut. 
Thomas  Tracy. 

19.  Samuel  Hyde,  1639.  Died  1677.  Home-lot  on  north  side  of  West 
Town  street  above  the  rocks. 

20.  Wm.  Hyde,  1659.  Died  1682.  Townsman  in  1673  and  1679.  Home- 
■  ot  on  West  Town  street. 

21.  Thomas  Howard,  1659.  Slain  at  the  Narragansett  fort  fight  in  1675. 
Home-lot  on  north  side  of  West  Town  street  below  Bean  Hill  church. 

22.  Lieut.  Thomas  Leffingwell.  Born  about  1622 :  died  after  1714.  Home- 
lot  located  on  the  corner  of  the  present  Washington  street  and  Harland  road. 
House  occupied  by  D.  H.  Torosian  in  1909.  Leflfingwell  was  famous  for 
bringing  relief  to  Uncas  when  he  was  besieged  by  the  Narragansetts.     Rep- 


*  There  is  to  be  found  in  Holland's  "Life  of  Lincoln"  a  brief  account  of  the  New  England 
trip,  including  the  visit  to  Norwich,  and  also  an  interview  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Dr 
Gulliver  that  took  place  on  the  train  to  New  Haven  the  morning  after  his  speech  in  Norwich 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  i6i 

resented  the  town  in  fifty-six  sessions  of  the  General  Court. 

23.  Major  John  Mason,  1659.  Born  in  England;  died  in  Norwich,  1672. 
Deputy  Governor  of  Colony  of  Connecticut.  Distinguished  among  the 
Founders  of  Norwich.  In  his  hand  the  sword  of  the  Lord  was  mighty  against 
the  savage  Pequots.  Firm  friend  of  Uncas  and  the  Mohegans.  Valiant 
soldier ;  wise  counsellor.  Home-lot  corner  of  Town  street  and  New  London 
turnpike. 

24.  Dr.  John  Oimstead,  1659.  Born  about  1626;  died  1686.  The  first 
doctor  in  the  town.  Home-lot  where  the  Gilman  family  live,  at  3^0  Wash- 
ington street. 

25.  John  Pease,  1659.  "A  sea  faring  man."  Home-lot  the  last  on  West 
Town  street  at  the  river  crossing. 

26.  John  Post,  1659.  "A  sea  faring  man."  Home-lot  the  last  on  West 
street  next  above  Thomas  Bingham. 

27.  Thomas  Post,  1659.  Died  1701.  Constable.  Home-lot  on  West 
Town  street,  adjoining  John  Gager. 

28.  Josiah  Read,  1659.  Died  1717.  Constable.  Home-lot  on  Washington 
street  east  of  the  Coit  Elms. 

29.  John  Reynolds,  1659.  Died  1702.  His  dwelling,  on  Washington 
street,  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  Norwich.  Home-lot  included  Backus  Hospital 
grounds. 

30.  Jonathan  Royce,  1659.  Died  1689.  Home-lot  on  West  Town  street 
between  Allyn  and  J.  Tracy. 

31.  Rev.  Nehemiah  Smith,  1659.  Born  about  1605;  died  1686.  Home-lot 
on  West  Town  street  north  side  opposite  T.  Post. 

32.  Sergeant  John  Tracy,  1659.  Died  1702.  Home-lot  on  south  side  of 
West  Town  street  between  John  Baldwin  and  John  Pease. 

33.  Lieut.  Thomas  Tracy,  1659.  Born  about  1610;  died  1685.  Home-lot 
on  East  Town  street  adjoining  Christopher  Huntington.  One  of  the  most 
distinguished  of  the  Founders  of  Norwich.  He  and  John  Mason  were  wit- 
nesses of  the  deed  of  Unkos,  Owaneco,  and  Attawanhood,  granting  nine  miles 
square  to  the  inhabitants  of  Norwich,  for  the  sum  of  seventy  pounds.  First 
representative  to  the  General  Court. 

34.  Robert  Wade,  1659.  Date  of  birth  and  death  unknown.  Home-lot 
south  side  of  West  Town  street  between  John  Birchard  and  John  Gager. 

3S-  Sergeant  Thomas  Waterman,  1659.  Born  1644;  died  1708.  Home-lot 
on  West  Town  street  adjoining  John  Mason.  Youngest  of  the  Founders, 
sixteen  years  of  age.    He  represented  the  town  in  the  General  Court  in  1679. 

OTHER  EARLY  SETTLERS 

36.  Caleb  Abell,  died  August  7,  1731.  Three  of  this  name  are  found  at 
an  early  period  among  the  inhabitants  of  Norwich — Caleb,  Benjamin  and 
Joshua.  Caleb  married  in  July,  1669,  Margaret,  daughter  of  John  Post. 
Robert  Wade  transferred  to  Caleb  Abell  his  house  lot.  Town  street.  It  was 
located  between  John  Birchard  and  Morgan  Bowers.  He  was  chosen  con- 
stable 1684;  townsman  1689;  appointed  to  keep  tavern  in  1694.  Gen.  Elijah 
Abell,  a  gallant  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  born  in  Norwich,  was  a 
descendant  of  Caleb  Abell. 

37.  Richard  Bushnell  was  born  September,  1652;  died  1727.  Came  to 
Norwich  with  his  step-father,  Thomas  Adgate.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  Richard  Bushnell  was  one  of  the  most  noted  and  active 
men  in  Norwich.  He  performed  the  duties  of  townsman,  constable,  school- 
master,   poet,   deacon,    sergeant,   lieutenant   and   captain,    town   agent,    town 

N.L.— 1-11 


i62  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

deputy,  court  clerk,  and  justice  of  the  peace.     His  dwelling  was  on  the  Mont- 
ville  road  a  mile  south  of  the  city.     Married,  in  1672,  Elizabeth  Adgate. 

38.  Samuel  Lathrop,  died  February  29,  1700.  Was  son  of  Rev.  John 
Lathrop,  of  London;  came  with  his  father  to  America  in  1634  when  about 
fourteen  years  of  age.  He  married  at  Barnstable,  Mass.,  November  28,  1644, 
Elizabeth  Scudder.  He  was  a  house  carpenter,  and  came  to  Norwich  in  1668. 
He  had  nine  children  bj-  his  first  wife.  His  second  wife,  Abigail  Doane,  sur- 
vived him  and  lived  to  the  age  of  103  years. 

39.  John  Elderkin,  died  June  23,  1687.  Elderkin's  earliest  grant  at  Nor- 
wich was  in  1667,  and  was  conveyed  in  1668  to  Samuel  Lathrop.  The  next 
was  at  the  old  landing  place  below  the  Falls,  where  he  built  a  grist  mill  for 
the  convenience  of  the  town.  Here  for  a  long  course  of  years  stood  the 
mill  and  the  miller's  house.  Elderkin  built  the  second  meeting-house  for  the 
town.  Of  his  first  wife  nothing  is  known.  His  second  wife  was  Elizabeth, 
relict  of  William  Gaylord,  of  Windsor. 

40.  Stephen  Gifford,  born  about  1641  ;  died  1724.  He  was  an  early  settler 
and  is  classed  as  a  proprietor  by  Miss  Caulkins.  Constable  in  1686.  His 
home-lot  extended  from  Mediterranean  lane  to  the  chapel  of  First  Congre- 
gational church. 

41.  Christopher  Huntington,  Junior,  bom  1660;  died  1733.  "The  first 
born  of  males  in  Norwich."  Son  of  Christopher  Huntington  the  Founder. 
A  man  of  the  highest  character,  and  a  prominent  contributor  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  most  vital  interests  of  the  town.  For  near  forty  years  he  "used 
the  office  of  a  deacon  well."    Town  Clerk  1678  to  1691. 

42.  Elizabeth  Hyde,  born  August,  1660;  died  at  Lyme,  1736.  Daughter 
of  Samuel  and  Jane  (Lee)  Hyde,  the  first  child  of  English  parentage  born 
in  Norwich.     Married,  in  1682,  Richard  Lord,  of  Lyme. 

43.  Col.  Christopher  Leffingwell,  born  1734;  died  1810.  Pioneer  paper 
manufacturer.     Soldier  and  patriot  in  the  Revolution.     Prominent  citizen. 

44.  Major  James  Fitch,  Jr.,  born  in  Saybrook,  1647;  died  1727:  married 
(i)  1676,  Elizabeth  Mason;  married  (2)  1687.  Mrs.  Alice  (Bradford)  Adams. 
During  his  residence  in  Norwich  "he  took  a  leading  part  in  all  town  affairs, 
and  served  as  land-surveyor,  registrar,  captain  of  the  train-band,  and  com- 
missioner of  boundaries."  In  1698-99  he  sold  his  house  and  home-lot  to 
Samuel  and  Simon  Huntington,  and  later  made  his  home  in  Canterbury.  His 
home-lot  was  on  the  east  side  of  the  town  Green,  and  his  house  probably  stood 
south  and  near  to  the  present  residence  of  Wallace  S.  Allis. 

45.  Governor  Samuel  Huntington,  LL.D.,  born  1731  ;  died  1796.  Repre- 
sentative in  Legislature  1764,  and  Senator  1773;  Associate  Judge  Supreme 
Court  of  Connecticut  1774;  member  of  Congress  1775-1780  and  member  of 
the  Marine  Court;  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  President  of 
Congress  1779-1781  and  1783;  Chief  Justice  of  Connecticut  1784;  Lieutenant- 
Governor  1785;  Doctor  of  Laws,  Yale  College,  1779;  Governor  1786-96. 

46.  Benjamin  Huntington,  LL.D.,  born  1736;  died  October  16,  1800. 
Graduated  at  Yale  1761  ;  married  daughter  of  Jabez  Huntington,  of  Wind- 
ham;  State  Counsellor  during  Revolutionan,-  War;  director  of  battery  built 
on  Waterman's  Point  1775;  agent  of  colony  to  purchase  the  "Spy,"  bought 
to  watch  British;  superintended  building  of  the  "Defence"  14-gun  brig,  1776; 
representative  from  N'orwich  1775:  member  Continental  Congress  1784  and  of 
Constitutional  Congress  1789;  Judge  Superior  Court  1793;  LL.B.  from  Dart- 
mouth College  1782;  moved  to  Rome.  N.  Y.,  1796.  His  body  was  brought  to 
Norwich  for  burial.     First  Mayor  of  Norwich,  1784  to  1796. 

47.  Benedict  Arnold,  born  Norwich.  1741  ;  died  in  London,  1801.  Gen- 
eral in  the  Revolutionary  army.     Distinguished  for  his  heroism  at  Quebec, 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  163 

Lake  Champlain,  Ridgefield,  and  Saratoga.  Detested  for  his  treason  and  for 
the  burning  of  New  London.  The  house  where  he  was  born,  on  east  side  of 
Washington  street,  below  LaFayette  street,  was  destroyed  sixty  years  ago. 

48.  Aaron  Cleveland.     The  Aaron  Cleveland  house  is  now  standing  on 
West  Town  street  at  Bean  Hill  next  below  the  meeting-house.     Here  Aaron 
"carried   on"  the  hat  business,  and   at  the  same  time   wrote  poems,  essays, 
lectures,  and  sermons  upon  all  subjects  of  the  day,  social,  political  and  reli- 
gious.    Aaron  was  great-grandfather  of  Grover  Cleveland  (see  No.  78). 

49.  William  Cleveland,  died  in  1837.  Rev.  Benjamin  Lord  purchased  a 
house  on  the  site,  next  to  the  Johnson  home.  This  was  his  residence.  This 
property  was  held  by  the  Lord  heirs  until  1830,  when  it  was  sold  to  William, 
Cleveland,  grandfather  of  the  President.  William  built  a  shop  east  of  the 
house  where  he  carried  on  the  business  of  gold  or  silversmith.  This  dwelling 
house  was  burned  in  1852.     (See  No.  79.) 

50.  Dr.  Philip  Turner,  born  in  Norwich,  1740;  died  in  New  York  in  181 5 
and  was  buried  in  St.  Paul's  churchyard.  He  was  highly  distinguished  for 
his  professional  skill. 

51.  Joseph  Trumbull,  the  eldest  son  of  Governor  Trumbull,  and  the 
first  Commissary  General  Continental  Army;  in  1778  bought  the  property 
between  the  present  residence  of  A.  W.  Dickey  and  the  house  of  Mrs.  Kelley. 

52.  Diah  Manning,  1760-1815,  drum-major  of  Washington's  Body  Guard. 
He  carried  to  Major  Andre  his  breakfast  on  the  day  of  his  execution,  bringing 
it  from  the  table  of  General  Washington.  House  on  Town  street,  corner  Old 
Cemetery  lane. 

53.  Rev.  Benjamin  Lord,  D.D.,  was  born  at  Saybrook,  Conn.,  in  1694, 
and  died  at  Norwich  in  1784.  For  sixty-seven  years  pastor  of  the  First  Church 
in  Norwich.  He  was  graduated  at  Yale  in  1714  and  received  the  degree  of 
D.D.  in  1774. 

54.  Dr.  Solomon  Tracy,  born  in  1650;  died  in  1732.  He  was  a  youth  at 
the  settlement  of  the  town.  In  addition  to  the  duties  of  his  profession  he 
served  the  town  as  representative  in  the  General  Assembly  and  as  lieutenant 
in  the  train-band. 

55.  Madam  Knight  (Mrs.  Sarah  Kemble  Knight),  born  in  Boston  in 
1666,  and  died  in  New  London  in  1727.  The  greater  part  of  her  life  was 
spent  in  New  London  and  Norwich,  where  she  stood  high  in  social  rank  and 
was  respected  both  in  church  and  civil  affairs.  In  1717  the  town  of  Norwich 
granted  her  liberty  "to  sitt  in  the  pue  where  she  use  to  sitt  in  ye  meeting- 
house." A  silver  tankard  which  she  presented  to  the  church  is  still  preserved. 
She  was  remarkable  for  her  versatile  gifts  and  is  remembered  by  her  journal 
of  a  journey  alone  on  horseback  from  Boston  to  New  York  in  1704. 

56.  General  Andrew  Huntington,  born  1745 ;  died  1824.  John  Elderkin 
sold  land  on  East  Town  street  to  Samuel  Lothrop.  who  built  a  house  upon 
it  soon  after  1668.  Portions  of  his  house  were  probably  incorporated  in  the 
present  building  now  owned  by  Mr.  Fitch,  which  was  constructed  about  1740, 
by  Joshua  Huntington  (1698-1745).  (See  No.  61.)  Commissary  General, 
judge  and  merchant.    Lived  in  this  house  from  1766  until  his  death. 

57.  Simon  Huntington,  Jr.,  born  1659;  died  1736.  In  1688-89  Simon 
Huntington,  the  proprietor,  granted  land  on  East  Town  street  to  his  son, 
Simon,  who  held  many  civil  offices,  was  deacon  of  the  church  from  1696  to 
1736.  and  in  1706  opened  "a.  house  of  public  entertainment."  Captain  Joseph 
Carew  probably  used  parts  of  the  house  built  by  Simon  Huntington,  Jr., 
when  he  constructed  in  1782-83  the  house  now  occupied  by  Mr.  Kelly.    Joseph 


i64  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

and  Eunice  Carew  Huntington  and  their  children  occupied  this  house  until 

1854- 

58.  Hon.  Jabez   W.   Huntington,  born   1788;  died    1847.     United    States 

Senator  from  1840  to  1847.  lived  in  the  Simon  Huntington  house  (see  No.  57) 
after  his  marriage  in  1833  to  a  daughter  of  Joseph  Huntington.  "A  statesman 
of  unbending  integrity  and  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  interests  of  the  Union." 

59.  General  Jedidiah  Huntington,  born  1743;  died  1818.  Fought  at 
Bunker  Hill  and  in  many  of  the  most  important  battles  of  the  Revolution. 
He  entertained  both  Washington  and  Lafayette  in  the  house  on  the  corner 
of  East  Town  street  and  Huntington  lane.  He  married,  in  1766.  Faith  Trum- 
bull, the  daughter  of  the  famous  war  governor.  After  the  war  he  held  many 
important  positions  and  in  1789  was  appointed  Collector  of  Customs  at  New 
London  and  held  that  office  until  his  death. 

60.  General  Ebenezer  Huntington,  born  1754;  died  1834.  Was  the  half- 
brother  of  Jedidiah.  After  Jedidiah  removed  to  New  London  his  house  was 
occupied  by  Ebenezer.  He  left  Yale  College  when  the  war  commenced  and 
served  until  the  troops  were  disbanded  in  1783.  In  1810  and  in  1817  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  Congress.  Major  General,  Connecticut  militia,  over 
thirty  years.     His  four  unmarried  daughters  were  "the  Ladies  Huntington." 

61!  Colonel  Joshua  Huntington,  born  1751 ;  died  1821.  Married,  in  1771, 
Hannah,  daughter  of  Col.  Hezekiah  Huntington.  He  was  in  business  at  the 
Landing,  but  at  the  call  to  arms  he  followed  his  brothers  in  giving  himself 
to  the  service  of  his  country.  He  was  high  sheriff  of  New  London  county 
and  had  charge  of  the  first  United  States  census  (1709)  in  this  region.  He 
lived  in  the  house  on  Huntington  lane  now  owned  by  Mrs.  Theodore  F. 
McCurdy. 

62.  General  Jabez  Huntington,  born  1719;  died  1786.  Graduated  at 
Vale  College,  1741.  "The  house  in  the  lane"  is  today  practically  unaltered 
from  its  condition  when  it  was  occupied  by  Gen.  Jabez  Huntington,  who  as 
the  head  of  the  Connecticut  troops  did  much  for  American  freedom.  It 
surelv  includes  a  portion  of  the  whole  of  the  house  of  his  father,  the  first 
Joshua  Huntington,  and  may  include  the  house  built  by  the  founder,  John 
Bradford.  General  Jabez  Huntington  v^-as  the  father  of  Jedidiah,  Andrew, 
Joshua,  Ebenezer  and  Zachariah.  "If  the  annals  of  the  Revolution  record 
the  name  of  any  family  that  contributed  more  to  that  great  struggle,  I  have 
3'et  to  learn  it." 

63.  Colonel  John  Durkee,  born  in  Windham.  1728;  died  May  29.  1782. 
Leader  of  500  men  who  compelled  Ingersoll  to  resign  the  office  of  stamp 
master  for  Connecticut.  Colonel  at  Long  Island,  Harlem,  W'hite  Plains, 
Trenton  and  Monmouth.  He  was  in  Sullivan's  Indian  expedition.  Durkee's 
tavern  at  Bean  Hill  was  "opposite  the  home-lot  of  Mr.  Samuel  Abell."  He 
was  known  as  "the  Bold  Bean  Hiller." 

MEETING  HOUSES  AND  BURYING  GROUNDS 

64.  The  first  meeting-house  stood  near  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
Green,  "with  the  open  Common  around  it."  Of  its  erection  there  is  no  record. 
It  was  probably  built  by  a  "general  turn-out  of  the  inhabitants."  In  1668  a 
small  rate  was  collected  to  pay  Samuel  Lathrop  "for  repairing  the  Meeting- 
house." It  was  in  use  only  twelve  or  fourteen  years.  Opposite  present 
Norwich  Town  post  office. 

65.  In  1673  the  town  contracted  with  John  Elderkin  to  build  "forthwith 
a  new  meeting-house."    The  building  committee  were  Deacon  Hugh  Calkins, 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  165 

Ensign  Thomas  Leffingwell,  Ensign  Thoman  Tracy,  Simon  Huntington  and 
William  Backus.  It  was  completed  in  two  years.  Elderkin  contracted  to 
build  it  for  £428.  This  building  was  repaired  and  a  "leanto"  added,  in  which 
several  new  pews  were  made.  These  improvements  being  completed  in 
March,  1698,  five  of  the  oldest  and  most  respected  inhabitants  were  directed 
"to  seat  the  people  with  due  regard  to  rank."  The  site  of  this  second  meeting- 
house was  on  the  summit  of  the  hill.  It  was  to  serve  as  a  watch-tower,  and 
a  garrison  post,  as  well  as  a  house  of  worship. 

66.  December  6,  1709,  a  vote  was  passed  to  build  a  third  meeting-house, 
the  dimensions  not  to  exceed  55  feet  by  45,  to  be  modeled  by  a  committee  of 
the  church,  and  completed  by  March  i,  1712.  This  building  was  on  the 
rocks  near  the  site  of  the  second  meeting-house.  John  Elderkin,  2d,  son  of 
the  old  church  builder,  was  the  architect.  It  was  completed  in  December, 
1713.     A  vote  was  passed  to  sell  the  old  edifice,  which  had  lasted  forty  years. 

67.  The  site  of  the  fourth  meeting-house  was  at  the  corner  of  the  Green, 
under  the  rocks,  where  the  present  church  stands.  It  is  said  to  have  been 
a  "square  building,  with  a  front  porch  or  platform,"  with  doors  on  three 
sides.  It  was  voted  for  in  1748,  but  was  not  begun  until  1753;  it  remained 
unfinished  for  several  j'ears.  It  was  completed  in  1770.  On  the  7th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1801,  it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  with  several  other  buildings.  The 
present  building,  the  fifth  meeting-house,  was  built  partly  by  subscription 
and  partly  by  a  lottery. 

68.  Post-Gager  Burial  Ground,  1661.  In  1661  the  town  bought  this  land 
for  a  common  burial-place.  Many  of  the  proprietors  and  early  settlers  were 
interred  in  this  "regular  oblong  plot,"  11  rods  long  and  7  wide.  The  last 
interment  was  in  1740.  In  1872  the  present  monument  was  erected  to  the 
memory  of  Major  John  Mason  and  the  other  proprietors.  It  is  on  West 
Town  street,  half  a  mile  above  the  Uptown  Green.  No  traces  of  graves 
remain. 

69.  Entrance  to  Old  Burying  Ground,  1699.  At  Norwich  Town  through 
Old  Cemetery  lane  near  the  corner  of  Town  street  (the  River  road),  and  the 
Uptown  Green ;  a  portion  of  the  home-lot  of  Rev.  James  Fitch. 

70.  Entrance  to  the  Old  Burying  Ground.  1796.  On  East  Town  street, 
adjacent  to  the  Governor  Huntington  house,  through  the  Hubbard  gates, 
inscribed  by  Faith  Trumbull  Chapter,  D.  A.  R.,  with  names  of  soldiers  of  the 
Revolution  buried  within.    A  portion  of  the  home-lot  of  Simon  Huntington. 

PUBLIC  BUILDINGS 

71.  Court  House,  1762.  In  1735  the  first  court  house  was  erected  on  the 
south  side  of  the  parsonage  lot.  In  1762  a  new  one  was  built  on  the  Green 
near  the  present  watering  trough.  This  was  moved  across  the  street  in  1798 
near  the  present  school,  used  until  1833,  when  courts  were  moved  to  the 
Landing,  and  then  used  as  a  school  building  until  1891. 

72.  Town  and  Court  House,  1829.  Built  on  north  side  of  Church  street. 
Burned  April  11,  1865. 

74.  Jail,  1815.  A  third  location  was  chosen  in  1815,  when  the  Perit  house 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Green  was  purchased  for  the  county  house,  and  a 
jail  was  built  on  the  adjoining  lot  a  short  distance  back  of  where  the  store  now 
stands.     This  lasted  until  the  courts  were  moved  to  the  Landing,  in  1833. 

73.  Jail,  1759.  First  jail  was  at  southeast  corner  of  Green.  About  1759 
a  new  one  was  built  back  of  old  brick  schoolhouse.  This  was  burned  in 
1786  and  rebuilt  and  used  until  1815. 


i66  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

75.  Office  of  Town  Clerks.  The  first  town  clerk  was  John  Birchard. 
We  have  no  record  of  his  appointment.  He  was  in  office  eighteen  years. 
Christopher  Huntington,  appointed  1678,  was  in  office  until  his  death,  1691. 
Richard  Bushnell,  1691,  for  seven  years.  Christopher  Huntington,  Jr.,  i6g8, 
for  four  years.  Richard  Bushnell  again  in  1702,  in  office  for  twenty-four 
years.  Isaac  Huntington,  1726  till  his  death,  1764.  Benj.  Huntington,  1764, 
in  office  nearly  two  years.  Benj.  Huntington,  son  of  Isaac,  1765,  in  office 
thirteen  years.  Samuel  Tracy,  1778,  in  office  one  year.  Benj.  Huntington, 
1779,  in  office  until  his  death,  1801.  Philip  Huntington,  1801,  until  his  death 
in  1825,  and  his  son,  Benjamin,  born  1798,  was  in  office  nearly  continuously 
until  1830. 

76.  Dudley  Woodbridge's  Store.  Dudley  Woodbridge,  in  1774,  pur- 
chased of  Ebenezer  Lord  his  house  and  shop  on  the  Green,  north  and  next 
to  where  the  present  chapel  stands.  He  sold  goods  of  every  description, 
groceries,  shoes,  dress  goods,  hardware,  etc.  In  1782,  the  first  post  office  was 
established  in  Norwich ;  Dudley  Woodbridge  was  the  first  postmaster,  and 
held  the  office  until  1789.  The  mails  had  previously  been  delivered  by  post 
riders.     Mr.  Woodbridge  removed  to  Ohio  in  1789  or  1790. 

In  1790  Gurdon  Lathrop  occupied  this  store,  as  a  general  trader.  In 
1791  it  was  sold  to  Joseph  Huntington  and  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
Joseph  Carew.  After  October,  1800,  the  business  was  carried  on  by  the  firm 
of  Joseph  and  Charles  P.  Huntington.  On  February  7th,  1801,  this  store  and 
the  meeting-house  with  several  other  buildings  were  burned.  The  Huntington 
Brothers  moved  their  goods  to  the  store  "a  few  rods  N.  E.  from  the  Court 
House."  In  August  they  moved  to  the  large,  new  brick  store,  which  they 
had  had  built  on  the  site  of  the  old  Woodbridge  shop.  This  building  is  now 
the  chapel  of  First  Congregational  Church. 

'J'J.  Tracy  &  Coit's  Store.  About  1780,  Uriah  Tracy  and  Joseph  Coit 
leased  from  Thomas  Leffingwell  land  upon  which  they  built  a  shop  50  x  32, 
in  which  they  carried  on  for  many  years  an  extensive  business.  It  was  a  long, 
gambrel-roofed,  one-story-and-half  structure.  Uriah  Tracy  bought  in  1790 
the  Benedict  Arnold  house,  where  he  lived  until  his  death.  Tracy  &  Coit's 
Store  was  one  of  the  representative  stores  of  Norwich. 

78.  Aaron  Cleveland  Shop.  This  building  formerly  stood  the  next  but 
one  below  the  meeting-house,  Bean  Hill.  It  was  the  shop  of  Aaron  Cleveland, 
in  which  he  carried  on  the  business  of  hat  making.  It  was  moved  across  the 
road  and  is  now  known  as  "Adam's  Tavern."  President  Cleveland  was  his 
great-grandson  (see  No.  48). 

79.  William  Cleveland  Shop.  This  building  was  the  one  used  by  William 
Cleveland  as  a  goldsmith  shop,  1830-37.  It  stood  between  the  schoolhouse 
and  the  Johnson  home  facing  the  Green  (see  No.  49). 

80.  Brick  School  House.  On  Norwich  Town  Green.  Founded  by 
Doctor  Daniel  Lathrop  in  1783.  Now  occupied  by  the  Noah  Webster  Lit- 
erary Association. 

81.  Brick  School  House.  On  Washington  street.  Built  in  1789.  The 
first  school  attended  by  Lydia  Huntley  (Mrs.  Sigourney).  Now  used  by  the 
School-house  Club. 

82.  Leffingwell  Row.  Sometimes  called  "the  Long  Shop,"  built  by 
Christopher  Leffingwell  about  1780.  was  burned  in  1882  with  the  red  store 
adjoining.  Its  position  near  the  fork  of  the  roads  opposite  the  residence  of 
General  Edward  Harland  made  it  a  conspicuous  landmark.  It  was  occupied 
at  different  times  by  Leffingwell's  stocking  factory,  various  small  shops,  by 
the  judge  of  probate  and  by  the  post  office. 

83.  The  Teel  House,  "Sign  of  General  Washington."     Built  for  a  hotel 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  167 

in  1789  on  Chelsea  Parade;  afterwards  occupied  for  a  school  by  William 
Woodbridge,  now  the  parsonage  of  Park  Church,  for  many  years  the  resi- 
dence of  General  William  Williams,  who  was  distinguished  for  his  benevo- 
lence and  for  his  interest  in  the  Mohegan  Indians.  He  and  his  wife,  Harriet 
Peck  Williams,  gave  five  acres  now  the  grounds  of  the  Norwich  Free  Acad- 
emy, and  she  founded  the  Peck  Library,  now  in  the  Slater  Memorial  Building. 
He  was  born  in  1788  and  died  in  1870. 

EARLY  INDUSTRIES 

84.  Stocking  Weaving.  The  business  of  weaving  stockings  was  begun 
in  1766  by  Christopher  Leffingwell  with  two  or  three  looms.  In  1791  nine 
looms  were  in  operation  producing  1,200  to  1.500  pairs  of  hose  annually. 

85.  Grist  Mill.  A  grist  mill  built  by  John  Elderkin  at  No  Man's  Acre 
about  1661 ;  was  removed  about  1667  under  agreement  with  the  town,  to 
the  Yantic  river  below  the  Falls,  and  a  large  tract  of  land  was  granted  to 
him  as  compensation  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Indian  burying  place  on  Sachem 
street. 

86.  Iron  Works.  The  first  iron  works  were  established  at  Yantic  in  1750 
by  Elijah  Backus.  He  manufactured  bloom  and  bar  iron  for  anchors,  mills 
and  other  uses.  The  Backus  Iron  Works  obtained  great  repute  and  during 
the  Revolutionary  War  all  kinds  of  iron  work  for  domestic  uses  and  warfare 
were  made  and  repaired  here. 

By.  Pottery.  A  pottery  was  established  in  1766  at  Bean  Hill  and  con- 
tinued in  operation  far  into  the  19th  century.  Specimens  of  this  pottery  are 
among  the  treasured  possessions  of  some  of  the  old  residents  of  Norwich. 

88.  Linseed  Oil  Mills.  The  first  linseed  oil  mill  was  established  at  Bean 
Hill,  in  1748,  by  Hezekiah  Huntington,  and  at  a  later  period  the  manufacture 
was  carried  on  extensively  at  the  Falls. 

89.  Cotton  Mill.  A  cotton  mill  was  established  by  Joshua  Lathrop  in 
1790  on  Lowthorpe  Meadows  with  one  carding  machine,  five  jennies  and  six 
looms.  This  machinery  was  gradually  increased  and  a  great  variety  of  goods 
manufactured.     In  1703  the  firm  was  Lathrop  &  Eells. 

90.  Chocolate  ^lill.  The  first  chocolate  mill  was  established  in  1770  by 
Christopher  Leffingwell  on  the  Yantic  flats  below  the  Falls.  In  1772  Simon 
Lathrop  erected  another.    This  industry  was  of  considerable  importance. 

91.  Paper  Mill.  In  1766  Christopher  Leffingwell  began  to  manufacture 
paper  at  his  mill  on  the  west  side  of  the  Yantic  above  the  Falls,  near  what 
are  now  called  Paper  Mill  rocks.  This  was  the  first  paper  mill  in  Connecticut. 
The  annual  output  was  about  1.300  reams. 

92.  Clocks  and  Watches.  Clocks  and  watches  were  manufactured  by 
Thomas  Harland  in  1773.  He  employed  ten  or  twelve  hands  and  made  an- 
nually two  hundred  watches  and  forty  clocks,  which  were  pronounced  equal 
to  any  imported  from  England. 

93.  Fulling  Mill.  A  fulling  mill  with  clothier's  shop  and  dye  house  went 
into  operation  near  the  present  site  of  the  Falls  mill  in  1773. 

TAVERNS 

94.  Caleb  Abel,  the  third  innkeeper  of  Norwich,  probably  came  from 
Dedham ;  he  bought  the  Wade  lot  in  1677 ;  was  constable  in  1684,  townsman 
in  i68g,  and  often  thereafter;  enrolled  among  the  dignitaries  with  title  of 
Sergeant  in  1702.  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  John  Post,  1669,  and  after 
her  death  married  Mary  Loomer;  died  August  7,  1731.     He  was  appointed 


i68  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

innkeeper  under  the  date  of  December  i8.  1694,  as  follows:  '"The  towne 
makes  choise  of  caleb  abell  to  keep  ordinari  or  a  house  of  entertainment  for 
this  yeare  or  till  another  be  choosen." 

95.  Deacon  Simon  Huntington,  the  first  of  four  successive  generations 
of  deacons  was  the  second  innkeeper  of  Norwich.  He  was  married  to 
Sarah,  daughter  of  Joseph  Clarke,  of  Saybrook,  in  October,  1653 ;  appointed 
innkeeper  1690;  died  1706,  leaving  an  estate  valued  at  ^275,  including  a 
library  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  volumes,  of  the  value  of  about  30  shillings,  which 
we  are  told  was  probably  a  fair  library  for  a  layman  at  that  time. 

96.  Joseph  Reynolds,  son  of  John  Reynolds,  the  Founder,  kept  the 
ordinary  in  1709.  He  was  born  in  Norwich,  March,  1660;  married  Sarah 
Edgerton.   1688. 

97.  Thomas  Waterman,  born  1644,  came  to  Norwich  in  1659  with  John 
Bradford,  whose  wife's  nephew  he  was;  only  townsman  in  1675,  '81,  '84;  made 
a  freeman  in  1681 ;  died  June  i,  1708;  buried  in  Society  Burial  Ground.  He 
was  appointed  innkeeper  in  1679.  "Agreed  and  voted  by  ye  town  yt  Thomas 
Waterman  is  desired  to  keep  the  ordinary.  And  for  his  encouragement  he 
is  granted  four  akers  of  paster  land  where  he  can  conveniently  find  it  ny 
about  the  valley  going  from  his  house  to  the  woods." 

98.  Eleazer  Lord's  tavern  on  the  corner  of  Town  street  and  the  New 
London  turnpike  was  built  about  1770  and  for  many  years  was  frequented  by 
the  lawyers  who  came  to  Norwich  to  attend  court. 

99.  Joseph  Peck's  tavern  on  the  east  side  of  the  Green,  overshadowed 
by  a  large  elm  tree,  among  whose  central  boughs  an  arbor  was  formed  and 
seats  arranged,  to  which  on  public  days  friendly  groups  resorted  and  had 
refreshments  served— a  plank  gallery  being  extended  from  a  window  of  the 
house  to  the  bower  as  a  means  of  access. 

100.  Thomas  Leffing^vell,  the  fourth  innkeeper  of  Norwich,  was  given 
liberty  to  keep  a  "publique  house  of  entertainment  of  strangers"  in  1700.  This 
tavern  was  continued  for  more  than  one  hundred  years,  and  was  at  the  east 
end  of  the  town  plot,  and  was  a  noted  place  of  resort  in  war  times.  Married 
Marv  Bushnell.  September,  1672;  died  iMarch  5,  1723-24,  leaving  an  estate  of 
nearly  £10.000.  The  interesting  features  of  this  quaint  old  house,  within  and 
without,  are  remarkably  well  preserved. 

loi.  On  the  site  of  the  present  "Johnson  home"  was  located  Lathrop's 
tavern.  Built  in  1737  by  Nathaniel  Lathrop,  its  prosperity  was  maintained 
by  his  son,  .A.zariah.  From  here  was  started  the  first  stage  coach  to  Provi- 
dence in  1768.  In  1829  the  property  was  sold  to  the  Union  Hotel  Company, 
who  erected  the  present  building,  which  was  later  used  for  a  boarding  school. 

102.  Jesse  Brown's  tavern  was  erected  in  1790  and  its  proprietor  estab- 
lished a  stage  route  from  Boston  to  New  York  via  Norwich.  On  August  I, 
1797,  President  John  Adams  and  wife  stopped  over  night  here.  In  1855  the 
property  was  purchased  by  Moses  Pierce,  who  later  gave  it  to  the  United 
Workers  for  the  Rocknook  Children's  Home. 

103.  It  is  said  that  Capt.  Samuel  Bailey  was  jailor  about  1800,  and  the 
accommodations  for  the  iail  were  on  the  second  floor,  and  that  on  the  first 
floor  the  captain  kept  what  was  called  "Cross  Keys  Tavern." 

PRESIDENTS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

104.  Millard  Fillmore.  Capt.  John  Fillmore,  son  of  John  Fillmore,  "Mari- 
ner," of  Ipswich.  Mass.,  born  Morch  18,  1702.  He  married,  November  24,  1724. 
Mary  Spiller.  and  removed  to  Norwich  West  Farms ;  died  there  February 
22,  1777.  Captain  John's  grandson  was  Nathaniel,  whose  eldest  son  was  Mil- 
lard, bom  January  7,  1800,  in  Summer  Hill,  N.  Y. 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  169 

105.  Ulysses  S.  Grant.  On  the  site  of  the  house  of  Herbert  L.  Yerrington 
stood  the  original  Christopher  Huntington  homestead.  After  the  death  of  the 
first  Christopher  this  was  inherited  by  his  son,  John  (born  1666),  who  mar- 
fied,  in  1686,  Abigail,  daughter  of  Samuel  Lathrop.  John  had  three  daughters 
and  two  sons.  One  daughter,  Martha,  was  married  to  Noah  Grant,  of  Tolland, 
and  became  the  ancestress  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant. 

Martha  Huntington  married,  June  12,  1717,  Noah  Grant,  born  December 
16,  1693.  Their  son,  Noah,  Jr.,  born  July  12,  1718,  married  Susannah  Delano, 
November  5,  1746.  Their  son,  Noah,  3rd,  born  June  20,  1748,  married  Rachel 
Kelly,  March  4,  1792.  Their  son,  Jesse,  born  January  23,  1794,  married 
Hannah  Simpson,  June  24,  1821.     Ulysses  S.  Grant  was  born  April  27,  1822. 

106.  Rutherford  B.  Hayes.  George  Hayes  left  Scotland  in  1690  and  set- 
tled at  Windsor,  Connecticut,  1682.  His  great-great-great-grandson,  Ruther- 
ford Hayes,  settled  at  Brattleboro,  Vt.,  and  married,  in  September,  1813, 
Sophia  Birchard.  Her  ancestry  on  the  male  line  is  traced  to  John  Birchard, 
one  of  the  thirty-five  founders  of  Norwich.  Both  of  her  grandfathers  were 
soldiers  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Rutherford  Hayes  removed  in  1817  to 
Delaware,  Ohio,  where  he  died  five  years  later,  leaving  two  children.  On 
October  4,  1822,  Rutherford  Birchard  Hayes  was  born  three  months  after  his 
father's  death. 

107.  James  A.  Garfield.  Was  the  descendant  of  Major  John  Mason  and 
Reverend  James  Fitch,  who  are  recorded  among  the  founders  of  Norwich 
(see  Nos.  14  and  23). 

108.  Grover  Cleveland.  William  Hyde.  Samuel  Hyde  married  Jane  Lee. 
John  Hyde  married  Experience  Abel.  James  Hyde  married  Sarah  Marshall. 
Abiah  Hyde  married  Rev.  Aaron  Cleveland.  William  Cleveland  married 
Margaret  Falley.  Richard  Falley  Cleveland,  born  at  Norwich,  19  June,  1805. 
He  married  Anne  Neale,  10  September,  1820,  of  Baltimore.  They  removed 
to  Holland  Patent,  New  York,  where  he  died  i  October,  1853.  Grover  Cleve- 
land was  born  at  Holland  Patent,  31  July,  1853  (see  Nos.  48,  49,  78  and  79). 

109.  Tilrs.  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Edith  Kermit  Carow,  born  New  York, 
August  6,  1862,  daughter  of  Charles  and  Gertrude  Elizabeth  (Tyler)  Carow. 
She  was  married  at  St.  George's  Church,  Hanover  square,  London,  England, 
1886,  to  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Her  grandfather  was  General  Daniel  Tyler 
of  Norwich. 

OTHER  MEN  OF  DISTINCTION 

no.  Rev.  Hiram  P.  Arms,  D.D.,  pastor  and  pastor  emeritus  First  Congre- 
gational Church,  1836-82.  Born  in  Sunderland,  Mass.,  1799.  Died  at  Nor- 
wich, 1882. 

111.  Major-General  Henry  Warner  Birge,  born  in  Hartford,  August  25, 
1825.  Died  in  New  York,  July  i,  1888.  In  the  War  for  the  Union  he  passed 
through  the  successive  ranks  from  major  to  brevet  major-general.  He  ren- 
dered distinguished  services  at  Irish  Bend,  in  the  Red  River  campaign,  and 
led  the  forlorn  hope  at  Port  Hudson,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  battles  of 
Winchester,  Fisher's  Hill  and  Cedar  Creek. 

112.  Isaac  Hill  Bromley,  born  in  Norwich,  March  6,  1833.  Captain  i8th 
Regiment  Connecticut  Volunteers;  provost  marshal.  First  editor  "Norwich 
Bulletin";  journalist;  humorist;  chief  editor  New  York  "Tribune,"  1891-98. 
Died  at  Norwich,  August  11.  1898. 

113.  Hon.  William  Alfred  Buckingham,  born  in  Lebanon,  Connecticut, 
May  28,  1804;  died  in  1875.  Mayor  of  Norwich  1849-50,  1856-57.  Presidential 
elector,   1856.     Governor  of  Connecticut,   1858-66.     U.   S.   Senator,    1869-75. 


I70  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Merchant,   manufacturer,   philanthropist,   generous   benefactor  of  Yale   Uni- 
versity, the  Broadway  Church  and  Norwich  Free  Academy. 

114.  Thomas  Fanning,  born  at  Norwich,  Conn.,  July  18,  1750;  died 
May  24,  1812.  Soldier  in  the  Revolution.  Merchant.  One  of  the  donors  of 
Chelsea  Parade,  1791. 

115.  Lafayette  Sabin  Foster,  LL.D.,  bom  in  Franklin,  Conn.,  November 
22,  1806;  died  in  1880.  Graduated  Brown  University  1828.  Mayor  of  Nor- 
wich, 1851-53.  Speaker  Connecticut  House  Representatives,  1847.  United 
States  Senator,  1854-66.  After  death  of  President  Lincoln,  acting  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States.  Professor  of  Law  at  Yale  1868;  judge 
Supreme  Court  of  Connecticut  1870-76.  Benefactor  of  Yale  University,  Free 
Academy  and  Otis  Library.  "Great  citizen,  incorruptible  senator,  wise  coun- 
sellor, eloquent  advocate,  righteous  judge." 

116.  Daniel  Coit  Gilman,  LL.D.,  born  in  Norwich,  July  6,  1831  ;  died  in 
Norwich,  October  13,  1908.  Graduated  Yale  1852.  Professoj  Yale  College 
1856-72 ;  president  University  of  California  1872-75 ;  president  Johns  Hopkins 
University  1875-1901 ;  president  Carnegie  Institution  1901-04.  Delivered  his- 
torical address  at  Norwich  bi-centennial  celebration  in  1859. 

117.  William  Charles  Gilman,  born  in  Exeter,  N.  H.,  1795;  died  in  New 
York  1863.  Came  to  Norwich  1816.  Established  nail  factory  at  the  Falls. 
Extended  cotton  manufacture  from  the  Falls  to  Greeneville  and  Bozrah. 
Identified  for  thirty  years  with  the  most  important  manufacturing,  financial, 
educational  and  religious  enterprises  in  the  town.  First  president  Norwich 
&  Worcester  railroad.     Mayor  in  1839. 

118.  Hon.  Calvin  Goddard,  born  at  Shrewsbury,  Mass.,  1768.  Mayor 
of  Norwich  1814-31.  Judge  Supreme  Court,  1816.  Member  of  Congress 
1801-05.  Died  in  1842.  He  lived  on  the  corner  of  Washington  and  Sachem 
streets  and  owned  several  acres  of  land,  including  the  Indian  burying  place, 
and  mill  property  at  the  Falls. 

119.  William  Parkinson  Greene,  born  in  Boston,  1795;  died  in  Norwich, 
1864.  He  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1814;  removed  to  Norwich  in  1824; 
became  largely  interested  in  manufactures  at  the  Falls  and  Greeneville  and 
in  the  Norwich  Water  Power  Co.  He  was  mayor  in  1842;  first  president  of 
Thames  Bank  :  original  corporator  Norwich  &  W'orcester  railroad ;  second 
president  and  liberal  benefactor  of  Norwich  Free  Academy. 

120.  Rev.  John  Putnam  Gulliver,  D.D..  born  in  Boston  in  1819;  died  at 
Andover.  Mass..  1894.  Yale  University  1840;  D.D.  Iowa  University.  Presi- 
dent Knox  College ;  Professor  Andover  Theological  Seminary.  Twenty  years 
pastor  Broadway  Congregational  Church.  Held  in  honored  remembrance 
as  chief  promoter  of  the  Norwich  Free  Academy. 

121.  Russell  Hubbard,  born  in  Norwich,  1785;  died  1857.  Proprietor  of 
Norwich  "Courier."  Paper  manufacturer  at  Norwich  Falls  and  Greeneville. 
A  founder  and  vice-president  of  Norwich  Savings  Society.  First  president 
and  generous  benefactor  of  Norwich  Free  Academy. 

122.  Thomas  Sterrs'  Hunt,  LL.D.,  born  at  Norwich  in  1826;  died  Feb- 
ruary 12,  1892.  Professor  of  chemistry  at  IMcGill  University,  1862-68;  pro- 
fessor of  geology  at  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  1872-78.  Pre- 
sented with  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  at  Paris,  1855.  Honorary  member 
Royal  Society  of  London,  1859.  He  invented  a  permanent  green  ink,  first  used 
for  "greenbacks." 

123.  Deacon  Jabez  Huntington,  born  in  Lebanon.  Connecticut,  1767;  died 
in  Norwich.  1848.  He  was  president  of  the  Norwich  Bank  and  of  the  Nor- 
wich Savings  Society.    He  and  Hezekiah  Perkins  bought  the  land,  now  known 


CITY  OF  NORWICH  171 

as  the  "Little  Plain,"  on  Broadway  in  181 1,  and  gave  it  to  the  city  for  a  park. 
His  house  is  now  Mrs.  H.  H.  Osgood's. 

124.  Charles  James  Lanman,  born  in  Norwich,  June  14,  1795.  Yale 
graduate,  1814.  Receiver  of  public  money  for  Michigan,  1823-1831.  Founder 
of  Tecumseh,  Michigan.  Mayor  of  Norwich,  1838.  Died  in  New  London, 
July  25.  1870. 

125.  James  Lanman,  born  in  Norwich,  June  14,  1769;  died  August  7, 
1841.  Yale  graduate,  1788.  United  States  Senator,  1819-25.  Judge  Supreme 
Court  of  Connecticut. 

126.  Doctor  Daniel  Lathrop,  born  in  Norwich,  1712;  died  in  Norwich, 
1782.  Yale  College,  1733;  St.  Thomas'  Hospital,  London,  1737.  As  an  im- 
porter of  drugs  he  and  his  brother  Joshua  built  up  a  wide  reputation  and  large 
estates  for  their  day.  He  left  £500  to  Yale  College,  £500  to  the  First  Church 
of  Norwich,  and  £500  to  establish  a  school  on  the  Norwich  Town  Green. 
"Many  were  the  amiables  that  composed  his  character." 

127.  Daniel  Lathrop,  born  in  Norwich,  1769;  died  1825.  Yale  College. 
1787.  Was  engaged  in  the  drug  business  in  Norwich.  Son  of  Dr.  Joshua 
Lathrop. 

128.  Doctor  Joshua  Lathrop,  born  in  Norwich,  1723;  died  Norwich,  1807. 
Yale  College,  I743-  Merchant;  cotton  manufacturer;  public-spirited  citizen; 
one  of  the  donors  of  the  Chelsea  Parade  to  the  inhabitants  of  Norwich,  and 
contributed  generously  for  improvement  of  highways.  "He  devised  liberal 
things  and  did  them." 

129.  Donald  Grant  Mitchell  (Ik  Marvel),  born  in  Norwich,  in  1822,  near 
present  residence  of  the  principal  of  the  Norwich  Free  Academy.  Died  in 
New  Haven,  in  1908.  Yale  graduate  and  valedictorian,  1841.  Distinguished 
author  and  landscape  gardener.  He  delivered  an  oration  at  the  bi-centennial 
celebration  in   1859. 

130.  Col.  George  L.  Perkins,  born  in  Norwich,  August  5,  1788;  died  Sep- 
tember 5,  1888.  Paymaster  United  States  army.  War  of  1812.  For  fifty  years 
treasurer  of  Norwich  &  Worcester  railroad.  A  well-known  and  prominent 
citizen  of  Norwich.  In  his  great  age,  one  hundred  years  and  one  month,  "his 
eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated." 

131.  Capt.  Hezekiah  Perkins,  born  in  Norwich,  1751 ;  died  1822.  He  and 
Jabez  Huntington  gave  to  the  citv  in  181 1  the  land  now  known  as  the  "Little 
Plain"  for  a  park.     He  lived  in  the  house  now  owned  by  Mrs.  Charles  Coit. 

132.  Major  Joseph  Perkins.  A  soldier  of  the  Revolution ;  member  of  the 
Committee  of  Safety  in  1814.  Prominent  merchant;  public-spirited  citizen. 
He  with  Thomas  Fanning  and  Joshua  Lathrop  gave  Chelsea  Parade  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Norwich  for  a  park.  He  built  the  stone-house  on  Rockwell 
street  in  1825. 

133.  Dr.  Dwight  Ripley,  born  in  Windham.  Connecticut,  in  1767;  died 
in  Norwich,  1835.  A  descendant  of  Gov.  William  Bradford  of  Plymouth. 
He  was  actively  engaged  in  business  in  Norwich  for  over  forty  years,  and 
built  up  a  large  wholesale  drug  trade  on  present  site  of  Lee  &  Osgood's  store. 
He  did  much  for  the  advancement  of  Norwich,  and  left  a  large  family  of 
sons  and  daughters  who  are  held  in  honored  remembrance. 

134.  General  Alfred  Perkins  Rockwell,  born  in  Norwich,  1834;  died  in 
Boston,  1903.  Yale  College,  1855.  Professor  mining  in  Massachusetts  Insti- 
tute of  Technology.  Rendered  distinguished  services  in  the  War  for  the 
Union,  rising  from  the  rank  of  captain  to  brevet  brigadier-general,  and  serv- 
ing at  James  Island,  Fort  Darling,  Bermuda  Hundreds  and  Fort  Fisher. 

135.  Charles  W.  Rockwell,  born  in  Norwich,  1799;  died  in  1866.    During 


172  NEW  LOXDOX  COUXTY 

his  residence  in  Norwich  he  was  distinguished  for  his  liberality  and  public 
spirit.  In  1833  he  built  the  mansion  on  Broadway  afterwards  owned  by  John 
F.  Slater.  He  was  interested  in  manufactures  at  Norwich  Town  ;  was  four 
years  mayor  of  the  city ;  was  three  times  elected  to  the  State  Legislature, 
and  was  for  several  years  United  States  Commissioner  of  Customs  at  Wash- 
ington. 

The  following  description  of  Norwich  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  published 
in  "Star  Papers"  in  1851,  and  reprinted  for  the  250th  anniversary  of  the  set- 
tlement, is  given  entire: 

There  are  hundreds  of  villages  in  Connecticut  that  are  beautiful  in 
various  degrees  and  by  different  methods ;  some  by  the  width  of  prospect, 
some  by  their  mountain  scenery,  some  by  their  position  on  the  water,  and 
some,  nestled  away  from  all  the  world,  find  their  chief  attractions  in  their 
deep  tranquility.  But  in  every  place  the  chief  beauty  must  be  in  what  nature 
has  done,  or  in  what  man  has  done  ntaurally.  The  rocks,  hills,  mountains; 
the  innumerable  forms  of  water  in  springs,  rills,  rivulets,  streams,  estuaries, 
lakes  or  ocean ;  but  above  all  the  trees — these  create  beauty  if  it  exist  at  all. 
It  is  rare  that  any  place  combines  to  a  great  degree  the  several  specialties 
mentioned.  A  place  that  is  inland,  and  yet  on  the  seaboard — that  has  bold, 
precipitous  rocks  close  at  hand,  and  at  the  same  time  is  spread  out  upon  a 
champaign — that  unites  the  refinements  belonging  to  society  in  large  towns 
with  the  freshness  and  quiet  of  a  secluded  village,  imbosomed  in  trees,  full 
of  shaded  yards  and  gardens,  broad,  park-like  streets,  soon  opening  out  into 
romantic  rural  roads  among  pine  woods  along  the  rocky  edges  of  dark 
streams — such  a  place,  especially  if  its  society  is  good,  if  its  ministers,  teach- 
ers, civilians,  and  principal  citizens  are  intelligent  and  refined,  and  its  his- 
torical associations  abundant  and  rich — must  be  regarded  as  of  all  others  the 
most  desirable  for  residence.     And  such  a  place  is  Norwich,  Connecticut. 

The  river  Thames  is  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  Yantic  and  the 
Shetucket.  Upon  the  angle  of  these  three  streams  stands  the  town.  The 
Shetucket  is  a  black  water  in  all  its  course,  and  near  to  Norwich  it  has  a  bed 
hewed  out  of  rocks,  and  cliffs  for  banks.  The  Yantic  is  a  smaller  stream, 
rolling  also  over  a  rocky  channel,  with  a  beautiful  plunge,  just  above  the 
town,  of  seventy-five  feet.  The  Thames  is  not  so  much  of  a  river  as  a  narrow 
arm  of  the  sea,  thrust  far  up  inland  as  if  to  search  for  tributary  streams. 
These  ribbon-like  bays  mark  the  whole  northern  coast  of  Long  Island  Sound. 
The  Thames  is  navigable  for  large  steamers  to  its  point  of  formation.  The 
conformation  of  the  ground  on  which  Norwich  stands  is  entirely  peculiar. 
Along  the  water  it  is  comparatively  low,  affording  a  business  plane  and  a 
space  for  railroad  necessities.  The  whole  ground  then  rises  with  sudden 
slope,  lifting  the  residences  far  up  out  of  the  dust  and  noise  of  business  into 
an  altitude  of  quiet.  But  what  is  the  most  remarkable  is,  that  a  huge  broad- 
backed  granite  clifT  of  rocks  bulges  up  in  the  very  midst  of  the  city,  cutting 
it  in  two,  extending  backward  half  a  mile,  and  leaving  the  streets  to  sweep 
around  on  either  side  of  it.  This  masterly  old  monarch  looks  down  a  hundred 
feet  perpendicular,  on  the  eastern  side,  upon  the  streets  below,  its  bare  rocks 
and  massive  ledges  here  and  there  half  hid  by  evergreens,  and  in  spots  matted 
with  grass  and  fringed  with  shrubs.  On  the  western  side  the  slope  is  gradual, 
and  it  is  cut  half  way  down  to  the  Yantic  by  a  broad  street,  nobly  shaded 
with  stalwart  elms  and  filled  with  fine  family  residences.  As  one  winds  his 
way  from  the  landing  up  the  curving  street,  about  the  base  of  the  rock  on  the 


CITY  OF  NORAVICH  173 

eastern  side,  at  evening  especially,  in  twilight,  or  with  a  tender  moonlight, 
this  wild,  uplifted  cliff — in  the  very  heart  of  a  city,  with  forest  trees  rooted 
almost  plumb  above  his  head — has  a  strange  and  changeable  uncertainty,  at 
one  moment  shining  out  distinctly,  and  at  the  next  dim  and  shadowy;  now 
easily  compassed  by  the  eye,  and  then  glancing  away,  if  we  have  imagination 
enough,  into  vast  mountain  spaces.  This  singular  rocky  ridge  trends  toward 
the  north,  and  gradually  loses  itself  in  the  plain  on  which  stands  Norwich 
Old  Town.  There  is  thus  brought  together,  within  the  space  of  a  mile,  the 
cit)',  the  country,  and  the  wilderness.  The  residences  are  so  separated  from 
the  business  part  of  the  town  that  one  who  comes  first  into  the  upper  part 
of  the  city,  and  wanders  about  under  its  avenues  of  mighty  elms,  and  among 
its  simple  old  houses  or  its  modern  mansions,  would  take  it  to  be  a  place  of 
elegant  repose,  without  life  or  business.  But  if  he  first  lands  below,  amid 
stores  and  manufacturing  shops,  as  for  several  years  we  did,  he  might  go 
away  thinking  Norwich  to  be  a  mere  hammering,  rumbling  place  of  business. 
Indeed,  there  are  three  towns  in  one. 

The  streets  skirting  the  water  form  a  city  of  business;  the  streets  upon 
the  hill,  a  city  of  residences,  a  mile  or  two  back  is  the  old  town,  a  veritable 
life-like  picture  of  a  secluded  country  village  of  the  old  New  England  days. 
What  could  one  want  better  for  a  place  of  retirement?  An  hour's  ride  brings 
you  to  the  seaside ;  to  boats,  fishing,  lounging,  and  looking,  whether  in  storm 
or  calm.  You  may  go  by  cars  to  old  New  London,  or  by  boat  to  Stonington, 
and  then  by  yacht  or  other  craft  to  Block  Island,  or  anywhere  else  you  please. 
There  are  places  for  fish — black  fish,  blue  fish,  speckled  bass,  porgies,  weak- 
fish,  etc. ;  there  are  places  for  surf-bathing,  with  waves  tempered  to  all  degrees 
of  violence  and  to  every  tone  from  whispering  to  thunder.  If  vour  mood 
does  not  take  you  seaward,  half  an  hour  will  suffice  to  bear  you  inland,  among 
bold  and  rocky  hills,  cleft  with  streams,  full  of  precipitous  ravines,  and  shaded 
with  oaks  and  evergreens.  Or,  if  you  do  not  wish  to  roam,  you  mav  asce/id 
the  intra-urban  mountain — the  Tarpeian  Rock  of  Norwich,  or  Mount  Zion, 
whichever  your  associations  prefer  to  call  it — and  from  its  pinnacle  overlook 
the  wide,  circumajacent  country.  If  you  happily  own  a  house  upon  the 
western  side  of  Washington  street,  or,  better  yet,  if  you  own  a  friend  who 
owns  the  house  and  feels  lonesome  without  you,  then  you  can  have  the  joys 
of  the  breezy  wilderness  at  home.  For,  if  you  will  go  back  through  the 
garden,  and  then  through  a  little  pet  orchard,  you  shall  find  the  forest-covered 
bank  plunging  one  hundred  feet  down  toward  the  Yantic ;  and  there,  hidden 
among  shrubs  and  wild  flowers,  oaks  and  elms,  you  hear  no  din  of  wheels  or 
clink  of  shops,  but  only  the  waving  of  leaves  and  the  sport  of  birds. 

But  if  there  were  none  of  these  rare  conjunctions  of  hill,  rock,  and  plain, 
river  and  sea,  Norwich  would  still  be  a  beautiful  place  by  virtue  of  its  trees, 
and  especially  of  those  incomparably  most  magnificent  of  all  earthly  trees, 
elms !  A  village  shaded  by  thoroughly  grown  elms  cannot  but  be  handsome. 
Its  houses  may  be  huts;  its  streets  may  be  ribbed  with  rocks  or  channelled 
with  ruts ;  it  may  be  as  dirty  as  New  York  and  as  frigid  as  Philadelphia ;  and 
yet  these  vast,  majestic  tabernacles  of  the  air  would  redeem  it  to  beauty. 
These  are  temples  indeed,  living  temples,  neither  waxing  old  nor  shattered 
by  Time,  that  cracks  and  shatters  stone,  but  rooting  wider  with  every  genera- 
tion and  casting  a  vaster  round  of  grateful  shadow  with  every  summer.  We 
had  rather  walk  beneath  an  avenue  of  elms  than  inspect  the  noblest  cathedral 
that  art  ever  accomplished.  What  is  it  that  brings  one  into  such  immediate 
personal  and  exhilarating  sympathy  with  venerable  trees !  One  instinctively 
uncovers  as  he  comes  beneath  them  ;  he  looks  up  with  proud  veneration  into 


174 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


the  receding  and  twilight  recesses ;  he  breathes  a  thanksgiving  to  God  every 
time  his  cool  foot  falls  along  their  shadows.  They  waken  the  imagination 
and  mingle  the  olden  time  with  the  present.  Did  any  man  of  contemplative 
mood  ever  stand  under  an  old  oak  or  elm  without  thinking  of  other  days — 
imagining  the  scenes  that  had  transpired  in  their  presence?  These  leaf- 
mountains  seem  to  connect  the  past  and  the  present  to  us  as  mountain  ridges 
attract  clouds  from  both  sides  of  themselves.  Norwich  is  remarkably  enriched 
by  these  columnar  glories,  these  mysterious  domes  of  leaf  and  interlacing 
bough.  No  considerable  street  is  destitute  of  them,  and  several  streets  are 
prolonged  avenues  of  elms  which  might  give  a  twinge  of  jealousy  to  old 
New  Haven  herself — elm-famous! 

Norwich  Old  Town,  however,  clearly  has  the  pre-eminence.  Its  green 
is  surrounded  by  old  Revolutionary  elms  of  the  vastest  stature  and  of  every 
shape  and  delineation  of  grandeur.  How  a  man  can  live  there  and  ever  get 
his  eyes  to  the  ground,  I  cannot  imagine.  One  must  needs  walk  with  up- 
turned face,  exploring  these  most  substantial  of  all  air  castles.  And  when 
pausing  underneath  some  monumental  tree  he  looks  afar  up  and  sees  the 
bird-population,  that  appears  scarcely  larger  than  humming-birds,  dimly  flit- 
ting about  their  secure  heritage  and  sending  down  a  chirp  that  loses  itself 
half  way  down  to  a  thin  whistle,  it  seems  as  though  there  were  two  worlds — 
he  in  one  and  they  in  another.  Nearly  before  the  fine  old-fashioned  mansion 
where  Lj'dia  Huntley  (Mrs.  Sigourney)  was  brought  up  are  two  gigantic 
elms — very  patriarchs,  measuring  at  the  base  more  than  eighteen  feet  in 
circumference.  An  old  man  of  a  hundred  years,  a  member  of  Dr.  Bond's 
society,  relates  that  his  father  selected  these  trees  from  the  forest,  and  backed 
them  into  town  and  planted  them  here.  His  name  should  be  written  on  a 
tablet  and  hung  upon  their  breasts! 

The  two  elms  next  south  from  these,  though  not  as  aged  as  they,  may, 
we  think,  be  regarded  as  models  of  exquisite  symmetry  and  beauty.  One 
might  sit  by  the  hour  and  look  upon  them  as  upon  a  picture. 

No  other  tree  is  at  all  comparable  to  the  elm.  The  ash  is,  when  well 
grown,  a  fine  tree,  but  clumpy;  the  maple  has  the  same  character.  The  horse- 
chestnut,  the  linden,  the  mulberry,  and  poplars  (save  that  tree-spire,  the 
Lombardy  poplar)  are  all  of  them  plump,  round,  fat  trees,  not  to  be  despised, 
purely,  but  representing  single  dendrological  ideas.  The  oak  is  venerable  by 
association,  and  occasionally  a  specimen  is  found  possessing  a  kind  of  grim 
and  ragged  glory.  But  the  elm  alone,  monarch  of  trees,  combines  in  itself 
the  elements  of  variety,  size,  strength,  and  grace,  such  as  no  other  tree  known 
to  us  can  at  all  approach  or  remotely  rival.  It  is  the  ideal  of  trees;  the  true 
Absolute  Tree!  Its  main  trunk  shoots  up,  not  round  and  smooth,  like  an 
over-fatted,  lymphatic  tree,  but  channelled  and  corrugated,  as  if  its  athletic 
muscles  showed  their  proportions  through  the  bark,  like  Hercules'  limbs 
through  his  tunic.  Then  suddenly  the  whole  idea  of  growth  is  changed,  and 
multitudes  of  long,  lithe  branches  radiate  from  the  crotch  of  the  tree,  having 
the  effect  of  straightness  and  strength,  yet  really  diverging  and  curving,  until 
the  outermost  portions  droop  over  and  give  to  the  whole  top  the  most  fault- 
less grace.  If  one  should  at  first  say  that  the  elm  suggested  ideas  of  strength 
and  uprightness,  on  looking  again  he  would  correct  himself,  and  say  that 
it  was  majestic,  uplifting  beauty  that  it  chiefly  represented.  But  if  he  first 
had  said  that  it  was  graceful  and  magnificent  beauty,  on  a  second  look  he 
would  correct  himself,  and  say  that  it  was  vast  and  rugged  strength  that  it 
set  forth.  But  at  length  he  would  say  neither;  he  would  say  both;  he  would 
sav  that  it  expressed  a  beauty  of  majestic  strength  and  a  grandeur  of  grace- 
ful beautj'. 


CITY  OF  NORWICH 


175 


Such  domestic  forest  treasures  are  a  legacy  which  but  few  places  can 
boast.  Wealth  can  build  houses  and  smooth  the  soil ;  it  can  fill  up  marshes 
and  create  lakes  or  artificial  rivers ;  it  can  gather  statues  and  paintings ;  but 
no  wealth  can  buy  or  build  elm  trees — the  floral  glory  of  New  England.  Time 
is  the  only  architect  of  such  structures,  and  blessed  are  they  for  whom  Time 
was  pleased  to  fore-think !  No  care  or  expense  should  be  counted  too  much 
to  maintain  the  venerable  elms  of  New  England  in  all  their  regal  glory! 

No  other  tree  more  enjoys  a  rich  loam  and  moist  food.  In  summer 
droughts,  if  copious  waterings  were  given  to  the  finer  elms,  especially  with 
diluted  guano  water,  their  pomp  would  be  noticeably  enhanced.  But,  except 
in  moist  places,  or  in  fields  where  the  plow  has  kept  the  surface  stirred,  we 
noticed  that  elms  were  turning  yellow  and  thinning  out  their  leaves. 


CHAPTER  VII 
OTHER  TOWNS  OF  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Colchester — East    Lyme — Franklin — Griswold — Groton — Lebanon — Ledyard — Lisbon— 
Lyme  and  Old  Lyme — Salem — Sprague — Stoningrton — Volimtown — Waterford. 

Colchester.— There  can  be  but  little  doubt  but  that  Nathaniel  Foote  could 
have  justly  claimed  to  be  the  father  of  Colchester.  He  was  the  grandson  of 
Nathaniel  Foote,  who  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  emigrated  from  Col- 
chester, England,  to  the  Colony  of  Connecticut.  His  grandson,  Nathaniel 
Foote  (3rd),  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  a  resident  of 
Wethersfield,  and  while  there  obtained  a  grant  from  one  Owaneco,  a  sachem 
of  the  Mohegan  Indians,  of  a  large  tract  of  land  including  a  large  part  if  not 
the  whole  of  the  present  town  of  Colchester.  By  the  terms  of  this  grant, 
Foote  undertook  to  distribute  the  land,  except  fifty  acres  retained  for  himself, 
among  the  settlers  thereon.  He  undoubtedly  intended  to  settle  himself  upon 
this  fifty-acre  tract,  but,  his  health  having  failed  him,  he  never  personally 
took  possession. 

On  October  13th,  1698,  authority  was  granted  by  the  General  Court  of 
the  Colony  to  Captain  Daniel  Wetheral,  Captain  John  Hamlin,  Mr.  William 
Pitkin,  Captain  John  Chester,  Mr.  Robert  Christophus  and  Captain  Samuel 
Fosdick,  to  lay  out  a  new  town  at  the  place  called  "Jeremiah's  Farm,"  upon 
the  road  to  New  London,  "beginning  at  the  North  bound  of  the  Twenty  Mile 
River  and  so  to  extend  southward  to  a  river  called  Deep  River  and  to  extend 
eastward  from  the  bounds  of  Haddam  seven  miles."  While  these  boundaries 
are  very  indefinite,  they  help  to  locate  today  what  undoubtedly  included  the 
present  town  of  Colchester  and  the  Indian  grant  to  Nathaniel  Foote.  On  May 
Tilh,  1699,  the  General  Court  of  the  Colony  specified  by  a  statute  the  bounds 
of  the  town  more  closely,  providing  that  "the  north  boundary  of  the  town 
shall  be  as  formerly  at  Twenty  Mile  River,  and  the  south  bounds  to  join 
the  north  bounds  of  Lyme  and  the  west  bounds  to  join  the  east  bounds  of 
Middletown  and  the  east  bounds  of  Haddam  and  the  east  and  northeast 
bounds  to  run  to  the  bounds  of  Lebanon  and  Norwich."  The  town  as  originally 
laid  out  was  included  in  the  county  of  Hartford,  but  on  October  13th,  1699, 
upon  the  application  of  Michael  Taintor,  Samuel  Northam  and  Nathaniel 
Foote,  it  was  transferred  to  the  county  of  New  London  and  received  its 
name,  Colchester.  These  men  apparently  were  the  representative  men  of 
the  town  at  that  time  and,  as  Foote's  ancestors  came  from  Colchester,  Eng- 
land, the  strong  presumption  is  that  he  is  the  one  responsible  for  its  name. 

About  this  time  the  Indians  had  begun  to  cause  trouble  to  the  settlers, 
and  Captain  Samuel  Mason  w^as  appointed  by  the  General  Court  to  make  a 
settlement  with  them,  which  he  effected.  During  this  year  the  first  settlement 
appears  to  have  been  made  in  the  town,  unless  the  designation  of  "Jeremiah's 
Farm"  means  that  there  has  been  a  prior  settlement  upon  this  territory.  But 
of  this  there  is  no  certainty.  Foote  had  laid  out  his  fifty  acres,  and  in  1702 
built  a  home  for  himself  and  family,  but  his  health  broke  down  and  he  died 

X.L.— 1-12 


178  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

in  1702,  before  he  was  able  to  occupy  it.  The  building-,  however,  was  occupied 
almost  immediately,  in  the  same  year,  by  his  widow  and  a  large  family  of 
children,  from  whom  the  Footes  of  today  are  direct  descendants.  The  fifty 
acres  thus  laid  out  was  located  along  the  westerly  side  of  what  is  now  Broad- 
Avay,  and  the  frame  of  the  house  built  in  1702  still  stands  upon  the  premises 
now  owned  b}'  Mr.  Frederick  G.  Bock.  In  1700  the  first  white  child  was  born, 
a  daughter  (name  not  given)  to  John  Skinner,  and  the  next  year,  on  Novem- 
ber 9th,  1701,  was  born  Mary,  a  daughter  of  James  Taylor. 

Up  to  about  the  year  1703,  the  land  in  the  town,  except  the  fifty  acres  of 
Foote's  tract  and  possibly  the  "Jeremiah's  Farm,"  was  held  in  common  by  the 
settlers ;  but  about  that  time  steps  were  taken  for  its  division  among  them, 
and  shortly  a  town  measurer  was  appointed  to  measure  and  set  off  allotments 
of  land  to  the  persons  entitled  to  it.  The  first  grants  upon  the  record  ap- 
peared to  have  been  made  at  a  town  meeting,  January  nth,  1703,  when  a  large 
number  of  grants  were  made  by  the  town.  The  first  to  be  recorded  was  the 
one  allotted  to  Samuel  Loomis  and  John  Skinner,  the  latter  the  father  of  the 
first  white  child,  but  the  description  is  so  indefinite  that  it  is  impossible  to 
locate  it.  Then  followed  the  records  of  a  large  number  of  grants,  but  as  the 
descriptions  of  none  of  them  are  more  definite  than  this  first  one,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  locate  them.  It  may  be  said,  in  passing,  that  one  of  the  fields  on  the 
north  side  of  Packwood  lane  was  formerly  known  as  the  "Loomis  lot."  This 
may  be  the  location  of  that  first  grant  to  Samuel  Loomis.  While  these  grants 
cannot  be  definitely  located,  it  is  certain  that  the  first  settlement  in  the  town 
was  made  upon  the  property  now  owned  by  Mr.  Hamilton  Wallis. 

The  first  church  was  erected  at  or  near  the  corner  of  Broadway  and 
Packwood  lane  and,  in  clearing  along  the  east  side  of  Broadway,  a  number 
of  old  foundations,  wells,  and  graves,  have  been  discovered.  There  was  also 
discovered  what  apparently  was  an  old  roadway  running  diagonally  from 
Broadway,  which  at  that  time  was  the  ordinary  narrow  country  road,  in  the 
direction  of  the  present  Packvvoodville.  Michael  Taintor  was  the  first  town 
clerk,  and  held  that  office  for  some  thirty  years.  The  first  selectmen  were 
chosen  in  1706,  and  were  Deacon  Loomis,  Joseph  Chamberlain  and  Michael 
Taintor. 

During  the  earlj'  years  of  its  history,  the  town  and  church  were  one,  and 
therefore  the  history  of  the  town  during  these  years  includes  the  history  of 
the  Congregational  church.  In  1702  a  town  meeting  had  authorized  the 
employment  of  a  minister  for  the  church,  and  had  fixed  his  salary  at  forty 
pounds  per  annum.  In  October,  1703,  the  General  Court  of  the  Colony  had 
authorized  the  organization  of  a  church  in  the  town,  and  this  organization 
had  been  effected  December  20th  of  the  same  year.  In  1725  the  General 
Court  established  a  new  parish  which  included  the  southern  part  of  Col- 
chester and  the  northern  part  of  the  town  of  Lyme,  which  they  called  Salem. 
This  continued  as  a  separate  parish,  but  was  not  organized  as  a  separate  town 
until  1819.  Again,  in  October,  1728,  the  General  Court  created  another  parish 
in  the  western  part  of  the  town,  which  was  called  Westchester,  which  still 
exists  under  that  name  and  continues  to  be  a  part  of  the  town  of  Colchester. 
Obviously,  upon  the  creation  of  these  new  parishes,   it  was  impossible  to 


OTHER  TOWNS  179 

call  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  entire  town  to  support  these  several  parishes 
or  to  exercise  control  over  them,  and  so  there  was  created  what  were  known 
as  "Ecclesiastical  Societies"  havingf  jurisdiction  over  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
within  the  limits  of  the  parishes.  How  these  were  supported  is  unknown ; 
whether  by  some  system  of  taxation,  as  had  been  the  case  before,  or  by  volun- 
tary contributions,  cannot  be  definitely  ascertained  at  this  time. 

As  has  been  stated,  the  first  church  was  erected  in  1706,  at  the  corner  of 
Broadway  and  Packwood  lane,  and  was  forty  feet  square.  The  building 
was  sold  in  1709,  but  the  congregation  continued  to  occupy  it  until  1714,  when 
they  removed  into  a  new  building  erected  by  authority  of  the  town  meeting. 
This  building  was  thirty-six  by  forty  feet.  In  the  meantime  the  population 
of  the  town  had  moved  from  its  original  location  to  the  site  of  the  present 
village,  possibly  because  the  settlers  had  found  the  water  supply  of  the  first 
location  inadequate.  This  second  church  was  erected  a  little  to  the  east  of 
the  present  church  building,  in  the  middle  of  what  is  now  the  highway.  The 
third  church  was  erected  near  the  last  in  1771,  and  continued  for  seventy  years, 
when  it  gave  place  to  the  present  edifice. 

During  its  early  history  social  lines  were  sharply  drawn  in  the  church. 
For  at  a  town  meeting  held  January  14th,  1715,  it  was  provided  as  follows: 
"The  pew  next  to  the  pulpit  to  be  the  first,  second  is  designated  for  the  second 
pew  and  the  pews  equal  to  the  second,  the  third  is  designated  for  the  third 
pew,  fourth  for  the  fourth  pew,  next  the  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth,"  the 
remaining  seats  were  distributed  among  the  remaining  members  according 
to  their  rating  on  the  Assessment  list. 

Methodism  was  introduced  by  circuit  preachers  in  1706,  but  the  present 
building  was  not  erected  until  1843.  The  Baptist  church  was  organized  and  the 
present  building  was  erected  in  1836.  Calvary  Church  was  organized  in  1865. 
and  the  first  church  erected  in  1867.  The  first  Roman  Catholic  mass  was  said 
in  185 1  at  the  residence  of  John  Murphj^  and  services  were  held  for  some 
time  by  a  visiting  priest  once  a  month.  In  1S54  St.  Andrew's  Church  building 
was  erected,  and  since  then  it  has  had  several  additions.  Within  the  last  ten 
years  a  Jewish  Synagogue  has  been  constructed  on  Lebanon  avenue. 

One  of  the  first  matters  which  engaged  the  attention  of  the  settlers  was 
the  education  of  their  children.  Very  early  they  required  the  selectmen  to 
see  to  it  that  their  children  were  "fitted  for  some  lawful  employment  and  not 
become  crude  and  stubborn;  and  that  children  and  servants  should  be  cate- 
chised once  a  week  in  the  details  and  principles  of  their  religion."  They  were 
required  to  submit  to  examinations  on  these  points  by  any  selectman.  It  is 
hard  to  imagine  any  of  these  gentlemen,  who  have  for  years  composed  our 
board  of  selectmen,  holding  up  a  j^oungster  on  the  street  and  examining  him 
in  the  shorter  catechism.  Just  when  the  schools  were  founded  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say,  but  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago  there  was  a  school  for 
colored  children  north  of  the  old  church,  which  resulted  in  the  influx  of  a 
large  colored  population.  The  other  schools  were  generally  represented  by 
the  rural  district  school  of  today,  but  their  surroundings  and  furnishings  were 
very  much  rougher. 

The  celebrated  educational  institution   of  Colchester  is  the  well  known 


i8o  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Bacon  Academy.  It  was  founded  through  the  generosity  of  Pierpont  Bacon, 
a  farmer  from  New  London,  who  settled  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  upon  a  farm  about  three  miles  south  of  the  church.  By  his  will  he 
bequeathed  his  estate  to  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Colchester  for  the 
establishment  of  a  school  for  instruction  in  "reading,  writing,  English,  in 
arithmetic,  mathematics,  and  all  such  branches  of  learning  for  said  inhabitants 
and  such  instruction  to  be  free  to  children  of  the  town."  The  present  building 
was  erected  and  school  opened  in  1802.  It  soon  had  a  large  student  body, 
which  after  many  years  slowly  decreased  but  has  now  begun  to  rise  again. 
During  its  one  hundred  and  thirteen  years  it  has  faithfully  and  successfully 
educated  many  men  and  women  who  have  been  successful  in  all  the  walks 
of  life.  Among  those  of  national  reputation  are  Senator  Lyman  Trumbull, 
of  Illinois,  William  H.  Buckingham,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  and  Morrison 
R.  Waite,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  Beginning  with 
an  endowment  of  thirty-five  thousand  dollars,  it  has  now  more  than  sixty 
thousand  besides  its  building  and  equipment. 

Another  of  the  institutions  of  the  town  is  the  Cragin  Memorial  Library, 
which  was  erected  by  Dr.  Edwin  B.  Cragin.  a  Colchester  boy  who  has  achieved 
a  notable  success  as  a  physician  in  the  great  city  of  New  York,  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  all  places  in  which  a  young  man  can  command  a  general  recognition 
of  his  ability.     It  has  on  its  shelves  more  than  five  thousand  volumes. 

Colchester  has  borne  its  full  share  in  the  defense  of  the  nation.  When  the 
news  of  Lexington  was  heard  over  the  land,  seventy  of  its  sons  rushed  to  the 
relief  of  Boston.  Their  names  have  been  preserved,  and  among  them  are 
those  of  Foote,  Jones,  Ransom,  Bigelow,  Holmes,  Chapman,  Storrs,  Rathbone, 
Taylor,  Day,  Brown,  Higgins,  Fuller,  Allen.  This  is  the  only  roster  of 
soldiers  of  the  Revolution  giving  the  residences  of  the  privates.  The  official 
roster  maintained  at  the  capitol  gives  the  residences  of  the  officers  only,  so 
that  it  has  been  impossible  to  determine  who  of  the  residents  of  Colchester 
rendered  services  to  the  country  in  any  of  its  wars  unless  they  happened  to 
hold  an  official  position,  and  the  roster  is  so  enormous  and  the  names  so 
numerous  that  it  is  impractical  to  go  over  it  and  pick  out  the  names  of  the 
officers  who  were  from  Colchester.  This  town  itself  has  maintained  no  list 
of  the  men  who  went  from  here  to  the  defense  of  the  country. 

Many  years  ago  the  town  boasted  of  a  bank,  a  savings  bank,  and  was 
lighted  bv  gas,  but  all  these  things  have  passed  away.  In  early  times  the  only 
means  of  transportation  available  to  the  inhabitants  was  the  back  of  a  horse. 
The  inhabitants  went  to  church  on  horseback,  the  farmer  riding,  and  the  wife 
on  a  pillion.  The  farmer  carried  his  pork  over  the  back  of  the  horse  and 
brought  back  from  the  market  the  groceries  which  the  pork  had  purchased 
by  the  same  conveyance.  The  first  teaming  was  by  oxen,  of  goods  hauled 
from  East  Haddam  landing  on  the  Connecticut  river,  and  the  first  public 
conveyance  was  a  stage  coach  over  this  route.  As  railroads  were  constructed, 
a  stage  line  was  opened  to  Andover  and  a  coach  used  there  can  still  be  seen 
back  of  Jonathan  Clark's  barn.  At  one  time  this  route  had  become  so  impor- 
tant that  it  boasted  of  a  three-seated  coach  drawn  by  six  horses,  and  the  coach 
itself  hung  on  leather  straps  instead  of  springs.     A  coach  line  was  run  to 


OTHER  TOWNS  i8i 

Norwich,  which  had  boat  connection  with  New  York.     This  coach  was  run 
by  John  Talcott,  whose  descendant  ran  the  last  coach  out  of  Colchester. 
When  the  Air  Line  railroad  was  constructed,  this  route  was   discontinued, 
and  the  coach  made  its  regular  trips  between  the  village  and  Turnerville.    The 
Air  Line  railroad  was  completed  in  1873,  and  the  Colchester  branch  in  1877, 
when  the  Turnerville  stage  was  withdrawn.     The  principal  source  of  freight 
during  the  history  of  the  town  has  been  the  Hayward  Rubber  Company.     Its 
freight  business  was  for  many  years  transacted  by  mule  teams  hauling  large 
covered   wagons  over  the   Norwich  road,  to   and   from   Norwich.     The  con- 
struction of  the  railroad,  of  course,  put  the  mule  teams  out  of  commission. 
While  the  principal  industry  of  Colchester  has  always  been  farming,  its 
inhabitants,  very  early  in  its  history,  began  to  avail  themeslves  of  the  many 
water  powers  found  within  the  town.     In  1704  Nathaniel  Kellogg  and  Samuel 
Gillett  obtained  the  rights  to  erect  and  operate  a  sawmill  on  "Governors 
Brook,"  probably  the  present  location  of  Elgart's  mill.     In   1706  J.  Deming 
obtained  the  rights  to  establish  a  fulling  mill.    In  1708  J.  Wright,  Ebenezer 
Skinner  and  J.  Deming  were  granted  the  right  to  operate  "Iron  Works"  on 
"Jeremy's  River,"  the  present  location  of  Norton's  paper  mill,  and  afterwards 
two  tanneries  were  located  upon  the  same  stream.     In  1720  rights  were  given 
to  Nathan  Kellogg  and  others  for  the  establishment  of  a  grist  and  saw  mill 
on  Kellogg's  land.    In  1725  Andrew  Carrier  and  U.  Skinner  obtained  the  right 
to  establish  a  grist  mill  at  Comstock's  bridge,  and  afterwards  A.  Comstock 
located  a  grist  and  saw  mill  near  the  same  place.     On  "Stonej-  Brook"  was 
also  a  factory  for  the  manufacturing  of  nails,  in  those  days  hand  made. 

The  most  important  of  all  the  manufacturing  enterprises  in  Colchester 
was  the  Hayward  Rubber  Company,  which  was  established  in  Colchester  in 
1847  t)y  Nathaniel  Hayward,  a  joint  inventor  with  Goodyear  of  vulcanized 
rubber.  This  enterprise,  beginning  in  a  small  way,  rapidly  expanded  until 
from  a  capital  of  $100,000  it  grew,  through  capitalization  of  profits,  to  $500,000, 
and  an  output  of  $2,000,000  per  annum.  It  was  finally  absorbed  by  the  Rubber 
Trust  and  closed.  The  town  had  of  late  years  supported  a  shoe  factory  and 
a  creamery,  both  of  which  have  been  discontinued.  Today  the  existing  manti- 
factories  are  the  feed,  cider  and  vinegar  mill  of  D.  Elgart,  and  two  paper 
mills,  operated  by  H.  C.  Brown  and  C.  H.  Norton. 

The  population  has  been  a  fluctuating  one  both  in  numbers  and  compo- 
sition. In  1756  it  had  2,312  inhabitants.  It  had  increased  by  1782  to  3,865, 
which  has  been  the  largest  population  in  its  history.  From  this  point  the 
population  gradual!}'  decreased  until  1830,  when  it  numbered  2,073.  Then 
the  tide  rose  again,  and  in  1870  it  had  3,383  people.  Another  decline  followed, 
and  in  1900  the  population  reached  the  lowest  point  in  its  history,  1,991. 
The  tide  began  to  rise  again,  and  the  census  of  1910  showed  a  population 
of  something  over  2,100.  Originally  it  was  peopled  by  the  old  New  England 
stock.  A  list  is  still  extant  of  the  voters  of  the  town  in  1725.  This  list  con- 
tains many  names  of  residents  whose  descendants  are  still  with  us  or  have 
been  recently.  Among  them  we  find  Bigelow  (spelled  in  old  times  Bigeloo), 
Gillette  (Gillett),  Kellogg,  Williams,  Brown,  Clark,  Fuller,  Swan,  Chapman, 
Taintor,  Baker,  Foote,  Taylor,   Strong,  Chamberlain,   Pomeroy,  Hall,  Otis, 


i82  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Palmer,  Morgan,  Worthington,  Ransom,  Huntley,  Day,  Carrier,  Adams,  Brain- 
erd,  and  Staples.  But  the  introduction  of  manufacturing  brought  in  a  large 
foreign  element,  from  wliom  are  descended  some  of  our  most  respected  in- 
habitants. 

In  1821  John  R.  Watrous,  Ralph  Isham  and  David  Deming  conveyed  to 
the  trustees  and  proprietors  of  Bacon  Academy  one  and  one-half  acres  of 
land,  said  land  being  now  the  southerly  end  of  the  park.  The  borough  of 
Colchester  was  incorporated  in  1846.  The  town  is  bounded  on  the  north  by 
Hartford  and  Tolland  counties  and  by  Lebanon;  on  the  east  by  Lebanon; 
on  the  south  by  Salem  and  Middlesex  county ;  and  on  the  west  by  Middlesex 
county. 

East  Lyme. — East  Lyme  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Salem,  on  the  east 
by  Montville  and  Waterford,  on  the  south  by  Long  Island  Sound,  and  on  the 
west  by  Lyme  and  Old  Lyme.  It  was  originally  part  of  Waterford  and  of 
Old  Lyme.    It  was  incorporated  as  a  town  in  1839. 

The  well  known  story  of  the  "Bride  Brook  Marriage"  refers  to  a  stream 
that  empties  into  the  Sound  somewhat  west  of  Niantic  Bay.  Miss  Caulkins' 
poem  is  an  interesting  evidence  of  her  ability  in  verse : 

When  this  fair  town  was  Nameaug, — 
A  bleak,  rough  waste  of  hill  and  bog, — 
In  huts  of  sea-weed,  thatch,  and  log, 

Our  fathers  few,  but  strong  and  cheery, 

Sat  down  amid  these  deserts  dreary. 

'Twas  all  a  wild,  unchristian  wood, 

A  fearful,  boisterous  solitude, 

A  harbor  for  the  wild-fowl's  brood. 

Where  countless  flocks  of  every  pinion 

Held  o'er  the  shores  a  bold  dominion. 

The  sea-hawk  hung  his  cumbrous  nest, 
Oak-propp'd  on  every  highland  crest : 
Cranes  through  the  seedy  marshes  prest; 

The  curlew,  bj'  the  river  lying, 

Looked  on  God's  image,  him  defying. 

The  eagle-king  soared  high  and  free, 
His  shadow  on  the  glassy  sea 
A  sudden  ripple  seemed  to  be; 

The  sunlight  in  his  pinions  burning. 

Shrouded  him  from  eyes  upturning. 

They  came,  the  weary-footed  band ; 

The  paths  they  cleared,  the  streams  they  spanned, 

The  woodland  genius  grew  more  bland; 

In  haste  his  tangled  vines  unweaving. 

Them  and  their  hopes  with  joy  receiving. 

Then  beasts  of  every  frightful  name, 
And  wild  men  with  their  hearts  of  flame, 
By  night  around  them  howling  came ; 

No  arms  had  they  but  care  and  caution, 

And  trust  in  God  was  all  their  portion. 


OTHER  TOWNS  183 

Firm  as  the  rocky  coast  they  stood, 
And  earnest  as  the  rushing  flood, 
Disdaining  fear,  yet  fearing  God ; 

Each  man  was  both  a  lamb  and  lion, 

With  heart  of  flesh,  but  nerves  of  iron. 

They  yoked  the  eagle  to  the  dove, 
They  tamed  the  wilderness  with  love, 
Clear  light  within,  clear  light  above; 

By  faith  upheld,  by  foes  undaunted, 

?Iome,  freedom,  country  here  they  planted. 

Great  hearts  were  those  that  hither  came, — 
A  Winthrop  of  undying  fame, 
A  Brewster  of  an  honored  name ; 

Great  hearts,  the  growth  of  three  great  nations, 

Laid  deep  for  us  these  firm  foundations. 

The  angels  as  they  glided  by 

Some  gleams  of  brightness  lent  the  sky; 

And  earth's  own  angels,  too,  were  nigh, — 

The  choicest  of  fair  England's  daughters 

Came  with  them  o'er  the  billowy  waters. 

Now  thanks  to  thea,  O  God  of  lands ! 

Who  settlest  lonely  men  in  bands. 

That  brought  these  angels  to  our  strands ; 

The  Rose  of  Eden,  heavenly  woman ! 

To  gardens  changed  these  wilds  inhuman. 

See!  like  the  rose-tree's  sudden  bloom. 
Bright  visions  break  the  wintry  gloom. 
The  evergreens  breathe  forth  perfume. 

Love's  purple  light  the  scene  is  flushing, 

A  romance  into  life  is  rushing. 

A  streamlet — Nameaug's  western  bound — 
A  path  by  craggy  hillsides  found. 
Meandering  to  the  distant  Sound ; 

A  slender  stream,  but  clear  and  glowing, 

Down  through  umbrageous  valleys  flowing. 

Forth  from  a  lovely  lake  it  came. 

Sweet  stream  with  an  ungentle  name : 

But  now,  ice-bound,  snow-wreathed,  and  tame, 

No  longer  sparkling,  prattling,  leaping, 

The  Naiad  of  the  brook  was  sleeping. 

To  this  fair  stream  two  sledgy  trains, 
Grotesque  and  quaint  as  Lapland  wains. 
Rushed  swiftly  o'er  the  dazzling  plains: 

Vast  earth  before,  behind  all  hoary. 

Embosomed  in  a  shroud  of  glory. 

How  still  is  all  surrounding  snow ! 
How  dead  but  for  this  diamond  glow ! 
The  sun's  exuberant  overflow. 

Filling  the  air  with  quivering  gladness. 

Relieves  earth's  spectre  of  its  sadness. 


i84  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

No  sounding  bells  waked  nature's  ear. 
Yet  music,  flowing  sweet  and  clear, 
Rippled  the  sea  of  silence  drear. 

Cheery  they  come, — men,  maidens,  singing, 

*  *  *  * 

They  meet :  here  noble  Winthrop  stands. 

Come  forth,  ye  gladsome  bridal  bands. 

Ye  snow-capt  hills,  clap  all  your  hands ! 
Ye  spicy  cedars,  green  and  towering, 
Draw  round  them  all  your  screens  embowering. 

The  woven  nets  are  lightly  spread. 

The  spruce  boughs  yield  their  fragrant  aid, 

The  white  smoke  o'er  them  curls  a  shade, 

And  fruits  and  viands,  choice  and  dainty, 

Flow  from  the  ample  horn  of  plenty. 

Her  furrj-  wrappings  cast  aside, 
As  rosy  skies  when  clouds  divide, 
Forth  steps  the  conscious,  blushing  bride, 

A  trembling,  serious,  fadeless  beauty. 

Commingling  sweetness,  love,  and  duty. 

She  stood  like  Summer  on  the  snow, — 
No  morning  dawn  around  could  throw 
Such  rosy  light,  so  warm  a  glow, — 

And  hovering  clouds,  with  seraphs  laden. 

Showered  heavenly  blessings  on  the  maiden. 

She  was  a  dame  of  fair  degree; 
Her  lover,  fearless,  bold  and  free, 
Had  suffered  scaith  by  land  and  sea; 

Their  hearts  long  pledged  by  word  and  token. 

Now  let  their  sacred  rite  be  spoken. 

Then  hands  were  clasped,  and  Winthrop  prayed: 
The  life-long  covenant  was  made; 
High  heaven  a  mute  attention  paid; 

Winds,  groves,  and  hills,  with  reverence  lowly. 

Trembled  around  a  scene  so  holy. 

"Now  Sunk-i-paug  is  Bridal  Lake : 

Flow,  ever  flow!" — thus  Winthrop  spake, — 

'Round  hearts  and  homes  thy  journey  take; 

Love's  streamlet  out  of  Bride  Lake  welling, 

God  lead  a  brancli  to  every  dwelling. 

Franklin. — The  town  of  Franklin,  set  off  in  1786  from  Norwich,  as  were 
Bozrah  and  Lisbon  the  same  year,  was  settled  as  early  as  1710  by  nearly  fifty 
families.  The  people  of  this  section  of  Norwich,  known  as  "West  Farms," 
were  allowed  to  form  their  own  ecclesiastical  society  in  1716.  As  settlers 
increased  in  number,  other  societies  were  formed.  The  original  society  lost 
in  power  as  the  others  branched  off,  but  recovered  under  the  long  and  able 
leadership  of  Rev.  Samuel  Nott,  whose  remarkable  service  has  been  referred 
to  in  the  general  history  of  the  county. 

The  population  increased  to  2,358  in  i860,  but  lost  by  the  setting  off  of 


OTHER  TOWNS  185 

Baltic  as  a  part  of  the  town  of  Spraguc,  incorporated  in  1861.  Its  most  famous 
son  is  perhaps  the  Hon.  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  United  States  Senator  for  many 
jears. 

The  following  names  are  on  the  World  War  honor  roll  of  the  town  of 
Franklin :  Ralph  A.  Armstrong,  Frederic  K.  Armstrong,  Ernest  C.  Ayer,  Ray 
B.  Beckwith,  Harold  B.  Capshaw,  Walter  N.  Chappell,  John  Alton  Cox, 
Charles  E.  Davis,  Clarence  Howard  Davis,  Harold  A.  Duerr,  Charles  W. 
Frink,  William  C.  Flanson,  Herbert  R.  Hoffm.an,  Alfred  G.  Mason,  Edward 
W.  Mason,  James  J.  McCarthy,  John  N.  Muckensturm,  Thomas  F.  Murphy, 
Louis  E.  Nolan,  Michael  O'Hearn,  Frederick  H.  Race,  John  C.  Rother,  An- 
thony Wisneske,  Michael  Yuschalk. 

Griswold. — The  town  of  Griswold  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Windham 
county,  on  the  east  by  Voluntown,  on  the  south  by  North  Stonington  and 
Preston,  and  on  the  west  by  Preston  and  Lisbon.  The  first  settler  was  Eleazer 
Jewett,  from  whom  the  borough  of  Jewett  City  (incorporated  1895)  takes 
its  name.  His  tombstone  bears  the  following  inscription:  "In  memory  of 
Mr.  Eleazer  Jewett.  who  died  Dec.  7,  1817,  in  the  87th  year  of  his  age.  In 
April,  1771,  he  began  the  settlement  of  this  village,  and  from  his  persevering 
industry  and  active  benevolence  it  has  derived  its  present  importance.  Its 
name  will  perpetuate  his  memory." 

The  town  of  Griswold  was  incorporated  in  181 5,  being  taken  from  the 
town  of  Preston.  Starting  in  with  a  small  farm,  Mr.  Jewett  developed  a  grist 
mill  and  a  saw  mill.  Other  settlers  came  and  set  up  mills  on  the  Pachaug 
river.  An  oil  mill,  a  woolen  mill,  a  cotton  mill,  soon  followed,  and  added 
largely  to  the  prosperity  of  the  town.  While  the  town  of  Griswold  itself  is 
largely  agricultural,  its  water  power  has  developed  large  manufacturing 
establishments,  which  include  the  Slater  Mill,  the  Aspinook  Company,  and 
the  Ashland  Cotton  Company.    Its  population  in  1910  was  4,233. 

Groton. — Groton  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Ledyard,  on  the  east  by 
the  Mystic  river,  which  separates  it  from  Stonington,  on  the  south  by  Long 
Island  Sound,  and  on  the  west  by  the  Thames  river.  It  comprised,  originally, 
the  part  of  New  London  lying  between  the  Thames  and  Mystic  rivers,  but 
was  lessened  by  the  incorportaion  of  Ledyard  in  1836.  Groton  was  separated 
from  New  London  in  1704,  but  the  settlement  was  well  started  fully  fifty 
years  earlier.  Mystic,  Noank,  and  Groton  are  the  main  villages  of  the  town. 
Its  name  was  that  of  Governor  Winthrop's  English  home  in  Sufifolk  county. 
Of  one  of  its  early  settlers  Miss  Caulkins  writes : 

In  1694,  Davie  (John  Davie,  who  afterwards  became  Sir  John  Davie), 
was  one  of  the  landholders  to  \\hom  the  assembly  granted  letters  patent 
enlarging  the  territory  of  the  New  I,ondon  settlement,  or  colony.  The  same 
year  he  took  a  prominent  part  in  building  the  second  meeting  house  in  New 
London,  being  one  of  the  building  committee,  which  shows  the  activity  of  the 
man  in  public  affairs.  He  had  been  previously  appointed  rate-collector  and 
selectman  for  the  East  Side.  He  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  measures  which 
resulted  in  the  agreement  to  let  the  East  Side  become  a  separate  township, 
by  a  vote  passed  in  town  meeting,  February  20,  1705;  and  at  the  assembly, 
the  same  year,  an   act  of  incorporation   was  passed.     After  Mr.   Davie   had 


i86  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

been  town  clerk  about  two  years,  and  was  one  day  hoeing  corn  in  Poquonnoc 
plains  in  company  with  John  Packer,  in  the  midst  of  a  strife  as  to  which  of 
them  should  prove  the  faster,  suddenly  a  messenger  appeared  at  the  end  of 
the  row  and  inquired  of  the  barefooted  men,  with  their  trousers  rolled  up, 
which  was  named  Davie,  and,  upon  being  told,  he  congratulated  Davie  in 
these  words:  "I  salute  you,  Sir  John  Davie,"  .  .  .  and  tradition  has  it 
that  the  town  clerk  came  out  ahead  of  Packer,  winning  in  the  hoeing  match, 
and  that  he  did  not  deign  to  speak  to  the  newcomer  until  he  had  won  the 
wager.  This  same  John  Packer  afterwards  visited  his  old  friend  the  baronet 
in  England,  and  they  had  a  good  time  together.  .  .  .  Sir  John  Davie 
soon  went  to  England  and  to  his  estates  in  Creedy,  county  of  Devon,  where 
he  succeeded  his  uncle  of  the  same  name,  but  he  never  forgot  his  American 
relatives  and  friends,  for  he  not  only  showed  his  beneficent  feeling  toward  the 
school,  the  college  and  the  church,  but  through  Governor  Saltonstali  he  made 
gifts,  while  living,  to  his  relatives  in  various  colonies. 

An  interesting  item  in  the  early  town  records  of  Groton  runs  as  follows: 

Whereas,  ye  money  ye  law  allows  for  killing  wolves  is  found  by  common 
experience  to  be  too  little,  for  commonly  there  are  employed  twenty  or  thirty 
men,  who  often  spend  two  or  three  days  about  it,  and  then  sometimes  swamp 
them  and  do  not  kill  them.  Such  things  ye  inhabitants  of  other  places  have 
considered,  and  added  considerable  money  to  what  the  law  allows. 

Therefore,  the  inhabitants  of  this  town  are  desired  to  add  ten  shillings  for 
killing  a  wolf,  and  three  shillings  for  swamping  a  wolf  or  wolves;  but  six 
shillings  if  he  be  killed  ;  and  three  shillings  for  killing  a  grown  fox  or  wild 
cat,  or  eighteen  pence  for  a  young  one,  and  two  pence  a  head  for  crows,  and 
a  half  penny  for  black  birds,  which  was  voted. 

In  another  place  we  have  described  fully  the  Battle  of  Groton  Heights, 
from  which  may  be  seen  the  patriotism  of  its  citizens.  We  quote  from  the 
town  records  an  interesting  proof  of  the  town's  attitude: 

At  a  town  meeting  held  June  20,  1774,  the  following  action  was  taken: 
This  town  taking  into  serious  consideration  the  dangerous  situation  of  the 
British  colonies  in  North  America  respecting  sundry  late  acts  of  the  Britsh 
Parliament,  particularly  those  of  shutting  up  the  Port  of  Boston,  the  metropo- 
lis of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  abridging  their  chartered  rights, 
Szc,  which  if  carried  into  execution  not  only  deprives  us  all  of  our  privileges, 
but  renders  life  and  property  very  precarious,  and  as  we  esteem  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Boston,  now  suffering  the  tyranny  of  said  acts  of  Parliament,  and  in 
the  common  cause  of  America ;  voted,  that  we  will  join  with  the  other  towns 
of  this  Colony  in  such  reasonable  measures  as  shall  be  judged  best  for  the 
general  good  and  most  likely  to  obtain  redress  of  our  grievances.  Voted, 
that  we  esteem  a  General  Congress  of  all  the  colonies  the  only  probable 
method  to  adopt  a  uniform  plan  for  the  preservation  of  the  whole. 

Voted,  that  if  it  shall  be  judged  best  by  said  Congress  to  stop  all  exports 
to  Great  Britain  and  the  West  Indies,  and  all  imports  from  them,  we  will 
most  cheerfully  acquiesce  in  their  determinations,  esteeming  the  benefits  aris- 
ing therefrom  mere  trifles  compared  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of  America. 

In  the  War  of  1812.  Groton  men  did  noble  service  in  several  sea  fights. 
It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  during  Decatur's  enforced  idleness  in  the  Thames 
his  midshipmen  received  instruction  in  mathematics  from  a  Groton  school 
teacher  who  became  widely  known  as  the  originator  of  the  famous  "Daboll's 
Almanac."     The   father  was  aided  by  his   son,   Nathan   Daboll,  Jr.     This 


OTHER  TOWNS  187 

almanac  has  been  published  in  New  London  for  considerably  over  a  century. 

Groton  monument,  erected  in  1831,  marks  the  spot  of  the  famous  Revo- 
lutionary fight,  and  many  patriotic  celebrations  have  been  held  at  its  fort. 
In  the  Civil  War,  Groton  took  a  noble  part,  furnishing  many  volunteers  and 
making  liberal  provision  for  the  support  of  dependent  families. 

In  Groton  is  found  the  oldest  Baptist  church  in  Connecticut,  dating 
from  1705.  Bishop  Seabury,  the  first  bishop  of  the  Episcopal  church  in  the 
United  States,  was  born  in  Groton  in  1729.  He  was  buried  in  New  London. 
Over  his  grave  was  placed  a  tablet  with  this  inscription: 

Here  lieth  the  body  of 

Samuel  Seabury,  D.D., 

Bishop  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island, 

Who  departed  from  this  transitory  scene, 

February  25,  1796, 

In  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age. 

Ingenious  without  pride,  learned  without  pedantry,  good  without  severity, 

He  was  duly  qualified  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  Christian  and  the  Bishop. 

In  the  pulpit,  he  enforced  religion;  in  his  conduct  he  exemplified  it. 

The  poor  he  assisted  with  his  charitj-;  the  ignorant  he  blessed  with  his  instruction. 

The  friend  of  man,  he  ever  desired  their  good. 

The  enemy  of  vice,  he  ever  opposed  it. 

Christian!  dost  thou  aspire  to  happiness? 

Seabury  has  shown  the  way  that  leads  to  it. 

His  remains  were  later  removed  to  St.  James'  Church,  New  London, 
In  the  town  of  Groton,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Thames,  and  about  three 
miles  from  its  entrance,  the  United  States  Government  established,  in  1875, 
a  navy  yard,  which  grew  to  large  proportions  during  the  World  War. 

Lebanon. — The  town  of  Lebanon  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Columbia, 
a  town  of  Tolland  county,  and  by  Windham,  of  Windham  county ;  on  the  east 
by  Franklin  and  Bozrah ;  on  the  south  by  Bozrah  and  Colchester;  on  the 
west  by  Columbia,  Hebron  and  Colchester.  The  town  was  originally  some- 
what larger,  including  a  part  of  Columbia  and  other  territory.  The  back- 
ground of  its  history  is  laid  in  the  settlement  of  the  General  Assembly,  first 
with  Uncas,  then  with  his  son,  Owaneco,  who  sold  to  various  proprietors  a 
tract  called  the  "Five-mile  purchase,"  which,  with  several  other  tracts  pur- 
chased from  Indian  chiefs,  constituted  the  original  territory  of  the  town. 
The  standard  history  of  the  earlier  years  is  a  historical  address  delivered 
by  Rev.  Orlo  D.  Hine,  July  4,  1876.    We  quote  freely  from  this  address: 

The  four  proprietors — Mason,  Stanton,  Brewster  and  Birchard — evidently 
designed  that  the  "Five-mile  purchase"  and  "Mason  &  Fitche's  mile"  should 
form  the  main  part  of  a  plantation,  and  that  this  street,  since  called  Town 
street,  should  be  the  center,  and  under  their  direction  the  street  was  laid  out, 
and  the  land  adjoining  it  allotted.  Having  in  view  the  earliest  establishment 
and  most  efficient  maintenance  of  the  worship  of  God  and  the  means  of 
education,  the  land  along  the  street  was  divided  into  home-lots  of  forty-two 
acres  each,  and  there  were  second  and  third  lots  lying  back  of  these,  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  town.  Every  one  taking  a  home-lot  was  entitled  to  a  lot 
of  the  other  divisions.  In  this  they  seem  to  have  had  in  view  this  ridge,  and 
the  possession  of  meadow-land  in  the  valleys.    The  second  and  third  divisions. 


jg3  NEW  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

taken  from  unoccupied  land  in  other  parts  of  the  town,  were  assigned  by  lot. 
and  hence  were  literally  lots. 

This  broad  street  and  open  common,  which  became  so  marked  a  feature 
of  the  place,  seem.s  to  have  been  formed  in  this  way :  Originally  it  was  a  dense 
alder-swamp.  When  the  settlers  came  to  build  their  houses  they  would,  of 
course,  set  them  on  the  dryer  ground  of  the  edge  of  the  slopes,  extending  back 
on  each  side.  Thus  between  the  lines  of  dwellings  there  was  left  some  thirty 
rods  of  this  swampy  space.  Of  course  it  was  owned  by  the  original  fifty-one 
proprietors  of  the  "iFive-mile  purchase." 

They  were  organized,  had  their  officers,  meetings,  and  records.  They 
performed  acts  of  ownership  of  the  land  in  this  street,  as  of  other  common 
undivided  land  in  the  purchase;  and  in  1808  (by  William  Williams  and  the 
second  Governor  Trumbull,  as  their  representatives)  gave  to  Deacon  Sam- 
uel Buckingham  a  deed  of  a  portion  of  the  common  in  front  of  his  premises, 
and  received  of  him  forty  dollars  as  the  price.  They  had  meetings  at  a  still 
later  date. 

The  actual  settlement  of  the  plantation  began  in  1695,  and  its  increase 
appears  to  have  been  rapid,  the  number  of  grants  and  allotments  bearing  date 
November  that  year  being  more  than  fifty.  The  "Five-mile  purchase"  evi- 
dently came  then  to  be  fully  open  for  occupancy,  and  settlers  rushed  in.  They 
came  from  different  quarters,  some  from  Norwich,  others  from  Northampton, 
still  others  from  other  places  in  this  colony  and  in  that  of  Massachusetts. 

Lebanon  has  been  spoken  of  as  originally  a  dependence  of  Norwich.  No 
part  of  its  territory  was  ever  embraced  in  the  Nine-mile  square,  which  con- 
stituted the  territory  of  Norwich,  or  was  ever  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Nor- 
wich ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  a  majority  of  the  early  settlers  came  from 
that  town — the  Clarks,  the  Deweys,  the  Trumbulls,  the  Strongs,  came  from 
other  places. 

The  inhabitants  held  a  meeting  in  1698,  and  the  earliest  record  of  the 
town  or  settlement,  as  it  was  properh^  called,  was  then  made.  The  year  1707, 
Lebanon  stands  £5,179,  and  135  taxable  persons.  For  a  few  years  the  settle- 
ment of  the  town  appears  not  to  have  been  rapid.  Privations  and  hardships 
must  have  been  endured  by  those  who  came  here :  their  dwellings  must  have 
been  log  houses  among  the  trees  and  bushes,  with  here  and  there  a  clearing, 
and  all  uncertainty  as  to  the  bounds  and  titles  of  lands  had  not  ceased  to 
perplex  and  embarrass. 

That  there  was  a  great  amount  of  danger  or  annoyance  from  the  Indians 
does  not  appear,  the  Indians  of  this  section  being  friendly  to  the  English,  in 
league  with  them,  and  very  much  dependent  on  them.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  some  Indians  of  a  tribe  at  war  with  the  Mohegans- — perhaps  from  a 
remnant  of  the  Pcquots,  possibly  from  the  Narraganestts.  still  farther  east  in 
Rhode  Island — took  a  Mohegan  child  from  the  house  of  Mr.  Brewster,  who 
lived  on  the  Brewster  place,  near  where  Hon.  Edwin  M.  Dolbeare  now  resides, 
and  killed  it,  dashing  its  head  against  the  garden  fence.  This  tradition  comes 
reliably  from  one  who  lived  near  the  time  of  the  alleged  event,  and  who  spoke 
of  it  as  a  fact  well  known.  There  is  also  a  tradition  that  the  Abel  house,  which 
stood  where  Mr.  Robert  Peckham's  house  now  stands,  was  a  sort  of  fort 
(stockaded,  I  conclude),  to  which  the  inhabitants  fled  in  times  of  danger. 

If  the  Indians  did  not  seriouslv  trouble  the  settlers  the  wild  animals  did. 
So  late  as  1730  the  town  offered  a  bounty  of  ten  pounds  for  every  full-grown 
wolf  that  should  be  killed.  Col.  James  Clark,  of  Bunker  Hill  celebrity,  who 
died  December  29,  1826.  ninety-six  years  of  age.  used  to  relate  to  his  grand- 
children, who  are  now  living,  that  in  his  boyhood,  as.  coming  from  Norwich 
in  the  evening,  he  reached  the  low  ground  near  where  Mr.  Jeremiah  Mason 
now  lives,  he  drew  his  feet  up  upon  the  saddle  to  protect  them  from  the 
wolves,  which  he  often  heard  barking  and  howling  in  the  thickets  on  each 


OTHER  TOWNS  189 

side  of  the  road.  Deer  and  wild  turkeys  were  abundant.  The  first  settlers 
had  common  corn-lots,  which  they  joined  in  clearing,  fencing,  and  guarding. 
I  have  queried  whether  they  had  the  fever  and  ague,  and  I  am  sure  they  had, 
and  must  have  shaken  soundly  with  it,  but  probably  it  did  not  frighten  people 
away,  for  it  must  have  prevailed  in  all  the  new  settlements. 

After  about  1707  the  number  of  taxable  persons  ceased  to  be  given  in 
the  public  records,  and  only  the  property  list  is  noted.  The  list  continued 
steadily  to  increase,  and  to  gain  on  the  lists  of  other  towns  in  the  colony. 
In  1730  it  was  £19.972;  1733, £23,803  and  was  in  amount  the  eighth  in  the 
colony.  In  1740  it  was  £31,709.  and  was  the  fifth  among  the  forty-eight  towns 
in  the  list,  and  more  than  that  of  Hartford  or  New  London;  in  1748,  £35.570. 
From  1730  to  1760  Lebanon  must  have  gained  rapidly  in  population  and 
wealth.  The  colony  of  Connecticut  had  greatly  prospered.  In  1730  the 
number  of  inhabitants,  according  to  a  census  then  taken,  was  38,000,  and 
about  700  Indian  and  negro  slaves  and  1,600  Indians.  In  1756,  twenty-six 
years  later,  the  population  of  the  colony,  consisting  of  seventy-nine  towns  and 
settlements,  was  130.612,  an  increase  of  90.312,  and  Lebanon  then  had  a  popu- 
lation of  whites,  3,171.  and  blacks,  103;  total,  3.274.  Only  five  towns  in  the 
colony  had  a  larger  population,  viz.:  Middletown.  the  largest,  5,664;  Norwich, 
5,540;  New  Haven,  5,085;  Fairfield,  4,455;  and  Farmington,  3.707;  Hartford 
had  only  3,027.  In  1774,  the  year  before  the  battle  of  Lexington,  there  were 
but  sevent3--six  towns  and  settlements  in  the  colony,  some  of  the  smaller 
settlements  having  been  given  up ;  the  population  of  the  colony  had  increased 
to  198,010.  The  population  of  this  town  was  then,  whites.  3,841 ;  blacks,  119; 
total,  3,960,  the  largest  population  the  town  has  ever  had.  Only  six  towns 
in  the  colony  then  had  a  larger.  In  1784  the  population  of  the  State  had 
grown  to  208,800,  and  Lebanon  had,  whites,  3.827.  4  less  than  ten  years 
before;  blacks,  94,  25  less  than  sixty  years  before;  total  loss,  29.  Only  eight 
towns  then  had  a  larger  population.  New  Haven  having  the  largest,  7,960. 
In  1775  only  eight  towns  had  a  larger  grand  list  than  this  town,  it  being 
then  £41.600,  equal  to  $130,300,  the  pound  then  being  $3.33  1/3.  The  grand 
list  in  1876  was  $1,185,047.  Though  the  population  has  diminished,  the  grand 
list  has  largely  increased.  The  population  of  the  town  in  1870  was  2,211,  an 
increase  on  that  of  the  two  preceding  decades  ;  in  1804.  Columbia,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  about  600,  was  set  ofT  from  this  town ;  it  now  has  a  population  of 
891 ;  add  this  to  the  present  population  of  the  town,  and  the  total  is  3.162, 
showing  a  total  diminution  of  798  since  1774  within  the  territory  then  con- 
stituting Lebanon. 

As  we  have  said,  the  thirtv-five  or  forty  years  previous  to  1774  were  a 
period  of  great  prosperity  to  the  town.  Men  of  character  and  enterprise  came 
in  and  grew  up  here.  Capt.  Joseph  Trumbull  came  here  from  Suffield  about 
1,704,  evidently  without  any  considerable  means,  for  when  he  bought  the 
place  which  had  been  occupied  by  Rev.  Joesph  Parsons  he  mortgaged  it  for 
the  sum  of  three  hundred  and  forty  pounds.  He  had  vigorous  traits,  became  a 
planter  and  trader,  and  at  length  had  a  ship  which  carried  cargoes  of  his  own, 
or  belonging  to  his  family. 

.A.  fact  which  comes  to  us  on  good  authority  illustrates  the  temper  of  the 
man.  His  business  often  called  him  to  Boston,  and  sometimes  he  went  as  a 
drover,  and  he  would  meet  Rev.  Mr.  Wells,  who  had  been  pastor  here,  whose 
parishioner  he  had  been,  and  who  now  lived  in  Boston.  Mr.  Wells  was  a  little 
shv  of  him.  and  evidently  avoided  him  now  and  then,  in  his  plain  and  perhaps 
dustv  attire,  as  not  quite  in  trim  to  be  familiarly  recognized  by  a  Boston 
gentleman.  When  Mr.  Wells  came  here,  where  he  still  owned  propertv,  and 
(meeting  Mr.  Trumbull)  accosted  him  as  an  old  acquaintance,  the  latter 
refused  to  shake  hands  with  him.  and  turned  away,  saying,  "If  you  don't 
know  me  in  Boston,  I  don't  know  vou  in  Lebanon." 


igo  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Trumbull's  son,  the  future  governor,  after  being  graduated  at  Harvard 
College  in  1727,  went  into  business  with  his  father  and  became  a  merchant, 
and  engaged  extensively  in  commerce,  the  War  Office,  now  standing,  being 
his  store.  He  and  the  firms  to  which  he  belonged  owned  ships  which  traded 
with  London  and  Bristol,  England.  Hamburg,  Germany,  and  the  West  Indies, 
and  took  in  their  caroges  at  New  London  and  Stonington,  and  at  Haddam,  on 
the  Connecticut  river.  All  the  trades  were  carried  on  here,  and  it  became  an 
important  business  center.  Cloth,  leather,  boots  and  shoes,  saddles  and 
harness,  axes,  scythes,  and  barrels  were  made  here.  Among  the  town  officers 
appointed  every  year  was  an  inspector  of  leather. 

The  town  appointed  Jonathan  Trumbull  to  obtain  from  the  General 
Assembly  leave  to  hold  and  regulate  fairs  and  market-days,  and  they  were 
held  twice  a  year.  These  streets,  now  so  quiet,  were  a  place  of  concourse 
and  bustle,  of  exhibition  and  traffic,  which  the  people  of  surrounding  towns 
frequented,  and  to  which  traders  came  from  a  distance,  Trumbull  being  en- 
gaged in  wide  commerce  and  large  business. 

After  1743  there  was  a  renov.med  school  here,  which  Trumbull  was  an 
active  man  in  establishing,  and  it  was  controlled  by  twelve  proprietors,  and 
which  was  kept  for  thirty-seven  years  by  ^Master  Nathan  Tisdale.  It  became 
so  widely  known  that  it  had  scholars  from  the  West  Indies,  from  North 
Carolina  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  as  well  as  from  the  more  northern 
colonies.  At  one  time  it  had  students  from  nine  of  the  thirteen  colonies. 
Tisdale  was  a  genius  in  his  profession,  and  carried  the  school  to  the  highest 
stage  of  prosperity  which  it  ever  reached.  This  helped  the  intelligence  and 
high  character,  the  activitj'  and  pecuniary  thrift  of  the  place.  As  a  result  of 
this  and  other  agencies,  this  town  had  for  many  years  some  of  its  sons  in 
courses  of  liberal  education,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  are  known  to 
have  received  college  degrees.  The  strong  interest  in  education  which  long 
prevailed  here  accounts  for  the  fact  that  so  many  of  its  sons  and  daughters 
have  risen  to  eminence. 

And  from  the  first,  Lebanon  has  been  active  in  military  enterprises. 
While  this  town  was  never  directly  menaced  by  the  Indians,  the  frontier 
towns  of  this  colony  and  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  were,  and  this  town 
was  required  to  aid  in  the  common  defense.  As  early  as  1709.  Mr.  Jedediah 
Strong,  one  of  the  original  settlers,  and  an  ancestor  of  the  Strong  family, 
which  remained  and  still  has  representatives  here,  was  killed  in  an  expedition 
against  the  Indians  near  Albany.  This  colony  sent  troops  to  the  defense  of 
the  county  of  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  in  which  in  1704  the  Deerfield 
massacre  occurred,  and  which  was  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  the  French 
and  Indians.  In  1709,  in  an  expedition  against  Canada,  in  Queen  Ann's  War, 
the  proportion  of  troops  from  this  colony  was  one  hundred  and  forty-seven, 
and  the  quota  of  Lebanon  eleven. 

In  the  wars  in  which  the  Mother  Country  was  engaged  at  this  period, 
the  colonies  were  involved — in  the  Spanish  War  of  1739 ;  in  King  George's 
War;  a  war  with  France  =n  1744  in  which  Louisburg.  in  Cape  Breton,  a  very 
strong  place,  termed  the  Gibraltar  of  America,  was  taken;  in  the  French  and 
Indian  War,  which  began  in  1755  and  ended  in  1763  with  the  conquest  of  the 
whole  of  Canada.  During  these  wars  the  seas  were  infested  with  hostile 
ships,  and  the  colonists  were  exposed  on  every  side.  The  colonies  learned 
how  to  raise  troops,  to  equip  and  supply  them,  and  to  tax  themselves  in  order 
to  pay  them,  and  thus  were  in  most  im.portant  training  for  the  crisis  now  just 
before  them.  The  drums  used  at  Bunker  Hill  were  the  same  which  had  been 
used  at  the  capture  of  Louisburg. 

Lebanon,  as  a  town,  was  among  the  foremost  in  this  colonv  in  the  part 
it  bore  in  these  enterprises  and  testings.     In  1739,  Jonathan  Trumbull,  then 


OTHER  TOWNS  191 

young,  was  commissioned  lieutenant-colonel  of  a  regiment  raised  for  an  expe- 
dition against  Canada;  he  was  afterwards  colonel,  and  early  had  experience 
in  recruiting,  furnishing,  and  moving  troops.  The  people  of  the  town  were 
patriotic  and  s]Mrited.  On  the  surrender  of  Quebec,  in  1759,  they  observed 
the  general  thanksgiving,  and  Dr.  Solomon  Williams'  jubilant  sermon  on 
the  occasion  of  this  was  published.  He  says,  "For  more  than  seventy  years 
our  enemies  have  been  designing  our  ruin,  and  formed  and  projected  a  settled 
design  to  encompass  us,  unobserved,  with  a  string  of  forts  from  Canada  to 
the  Bay  of  Mexico."  He  regards  "the  conquest  of  Quebec,  the  capital  of 
Canada,  as  of  more  importance  than  has  ever  been  made  by  the  English  since 
England  was  a  nation."  He  states  his  reasons,  and  calls  upon  the  people 
triumphantly  to  praise  Him  who  has  given  such  success. 

Of  course  a  people  thus  trained,  in  such  a  temper,  and  having  such 
leaders  as  there  were  here  in  Jonathan  Trumbull,  William  Williams,  and 
others,  were  all  ready,  when  the  Mother  Country  began  to  encroach  on  the 
liberties  of  the  colonies,  to  resist  them  and  to  maintain  their  rights.  When,  in 
October,  1765,  Governor  Fitch  proposed  to  take  the  required  oath  to  enforce 
the  Stamp  Act,  and  called  upon  his  "assistants"  to  administer  it  to  him,  Trum- 
bull was  among  those  who  resisted  and  remonstrated.  The  governor  urged  that 
their  allegiance  to  the  king,  the  oath  of  their  office,  the  safety  of  the  charter 
of  the  colony,  and  their  personal  safety,  demanded  that  thev  administer  the 
oath  and  aid  in  the  execution  of  the  act.  Trumbull  was  ready  with  the  reply 
that  the  act  was  in  derogation  of  the  rights  of  the  colony,  in  violation  of  the 
common  privileges  of  English  subjects,  and  that  they  had  also  sworn  "to 
promote  the  puijlic  good  and  peace  of  Connecticut,  and  to  maintain  all  its 
lawful  privileges,"  and  these  they  would  treacherously  sacrifice  by  submitting 
to  the  demand  now  made  upon  them. 

When  five  (the  requisite  legal  number  out  of  the  twelve)  were  found 
ready  to  administer  the  oath,  Trumbull  refused  to  be  present  to  witness  its 
administration,  and  taking  his  hat  hastened  from  the  chamber,  leading  the 
six  other  assistants  who,  with  him,  had  stood  firm.  This,  with  other  clear  and 
courageous  conduct,  showed  him  to  the  colonists  as  fitted  to  be  their  first 
magistrate,  and  to  have  their  interest  in  his  hands,  and  he  was  chosen  gov- 
ernor in  1769.  He  already  had  large  experience  in  public  affairs.  He  had 
fourteen  times  represented  his  town  as  deputy  to  the  General  Assembly  and 
had  three  times  filled  the  office  of  speaker;  had  been  chosen  assistant  for 
twenty-two  years;  had  been  for  one  year  side  judge,  and  for  seventeen  years 
chief  judge  of  the  County  Court  of  Windham  county;  had  been  for  nineteen 
years  judge  of  probate  for  the  Windham  district;  had  been  once  elected  an 
assistant  judge,  and  four  times  chief  justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of  the 
colony;  and  for  four  years  had  been  deputy  governor.  He  held  the  office 
of  governor  fourteen  years,  and  till  within  two  j'ears  of  his  death. 

William  \\''i!liams  was  more  impulsive  and  ardent,  and  fitted  to  inspire 
others  with  enthusiasm.  With  tongue  and  pen  and  estate  he  gave  himself 
to  the  cause  of  the  colonies.  During  the  gloomy  winter  of  1777  he  sent  beef, 
cattle,  and  gold  to  Valley  Forge,  saying.  "If  independence  should  be  estab- 
lished he  should  get  his  pay;  if  not,  the  loss  would  be  of  no  account  to  him." 
With  such  men  active  here,  we  are  prepared  to  find  on  the  town  records 
resolutions  like  the  following:  At  a  town-meeting  held  7th  December.  1767, 
a  letter  received  from  the  selectmen  of  Boston,  as  to  the  oppressive  and 
ruinous  duties  laid  on  various  articles,  and  calling  for  union  in  some  common 
measures  of  relief:  "Jonathan  Trumbull,  the  selectmen,  and  others  were 
appointed  a  committee  by  themselves,  or  in  concert  with  committees  from 
neighboring  towns,  to  consider  and  devise  such  measures  and  means  as  may 
more  effectually  tend  to  promote  and  encourage  industry,  economy,  and 
manufactures."     Under  these  oppressions,  bearing  heavily  on   it  as  a  port. 


192  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Boston  appealed  to  Lebanon,  and  this  town  came  into  full  sympathy  and 
concert  with  it. 

The  number  of  men  whom  this  town  sent  into  the  War  of  the  Revolution 
it  is  now  impossible  to  determine,  so  many  of  the  rolls  of  companies  are 
wanting.  Some  who  have  given  most  attention  to  the  papers  existing  and 
to  all  the  evidence,  estimate  that  there  were  periods  when  as  many  as  five 
hundred  were  serving  in  the  army  at  the  same  time.  Some  served  for  short 
terms — three  months,  six  months ;  some  were  minute-men.  called  out  when 
the  towns  along  the  coast.  New  London  and  New  Haven,  were  menaced  or 
attacked.  This  would  be  one  to  about  everv  eight  of  the  inhabitants  at 
that  time.  The  quota  of  this  town  for  the  Civil  War,  from  1861  to  1865,  was 
206;  and  the  population  in  i860  being  2,174,  this  would  be  one  to  about  every 
ten  of  the  inhabitants.  About  one  hundred  actually  went  from  this  town,  one 
to  every  twenty-one  of  the  inhabitants. 

The  town  records  furnish  abundant  evidence  of  the  resolute  effort  made 
to  meet  the  demands  for  men — which  came  year  after  year  as  the  war  went 
on,  and  tasked  the  resources  and  endurance  of  the  colonies — and  to  provide 
for  the  families  of  those  absent  in  the  army.  In  the  later  stages  of  the  war, 
when  a  given  number  of  men  was  called  for,  the  number  capable  of  bearing 
arms  had  been  reduced,  and  the  enthusiasm,  which  in  the  beginning  had 
prompted  men  to  enlist,  had  subsided,  the  able-bodied  men  of  the  town  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fifteen  and  fifty-five  were  divided  into  classes  of  the  same 
number,  ten,  and  each  class  was  required  to  furnish  a  man. 

After  the  religious  services  on  the  Sabbaths,  and  on  Thanksgiving  and 
fast-days,  especially  in  1777,  contributions  for  the  suffering  soldiers  were 
received  in  the  meeting-houses,  when  jewelry  and  every  article  of  clothing 
and  provisions  were  presented,  and  the  ladies,  as  individuals  and  in  concert, 
with  the  discreet  and  earnest  ^Madame  Trumbull  encouraging  them  and  set- 
ting them  an  example,  bore  their  part  in  these  contributions. 

How  impossible  it  is  for  us  in  quiet  Lebanon,  as  it  now  is,  to  picture  what 
Lebanon  was  and  what  transpired  here  during  the  years  of  the  war,  the 
governor  of  the  State  residing  here,  the  counselor  and  friend  and  efficient 
helper  of  Washington ;  the  Council  of  Safety,  which  aided  the  governor  and 
wielded  extensive  powers  in  the  conduct  of  the  war  in  this  State  and  in  this 
part  of  the  country,  holding  here  nearly  all  of  its  more  than  twelve  hundred 
sessions  held  during  the  war;  messengers  from  the  army  and  from  Washing- 
ton arriving  at  and  leaving  the  War  Office,  bringing  and  carrying  away 
dispatches;  the  governor,  with  the  agencies  he  employed,  engaged  in  pro- 
curing and  forwarding  provisions,  clothing,  and  military  supplies,  and  these 
streets  often  crowded  with  activity  of  this  sort;  for  seven  months  at  one 
period  the  Duke  of  Lauzun's  legion  of  French  cavalry  here,  some  of  them 
in  barracks  in  a  lot  on  the  right  of  the  Colchester  road,  called  "Barracks  lot," 
others  of  them  on  the  Common,  a  little  north  of  where  we  are  assembled, 
where  still  can  be  seen  remains  of  their  ovens  and  camp  utensils;  the  soldiers 
now  and  then  stealing  wood,  and  a  sheep,  a  pig,  and  convicted  and  punished; 
a  deserter  shot;  the  duke  and  higher  officers  having  quarters  in  the  house 
(on  the  corner),  in  its  original  form,  now  occupied  by  Asher  P.  Smith,  and 
some  of  the  officers  at  Alden's  tavern,  these  gentlemanly  officers  in  their 
leisure  flirting  with  the  fair  maidens  of  the  place;  gay  festivities,  at  which 
distinguished  guests  from  abroad  were  present,  frequently  occurring;  reviews 
of  troops ;  Washington  repeatedly  here  to  consult  with  the  Governor ;  Lafay- 
e«e  here,  according  to  Stuart  in  his  "Life  of  Trumbull";  General  Knox,  Dr. 
Franklin,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  John  Jav,  Thomas  Jefferson,  and 
others.  Lebanon  was  certainly  then  a  center  of  dignity  and  influence,  and 
was  the  military  headquarters  of  this  part  of  the  country. 

With  its  other  important  contributions  to  the  War  of  Independence,  this 


OTHER  TOWNS  193 

town  contributed  in  Jonathan  Trumbull  a  laborious  and  efficient  War  Gov- 
ernor, at  the  beginning  the  only  loyal  governor  to  whom  Washington  gave 
distinguished  confidence,  on  whom  he  relied  in  the  most  trying  emergencies, 
a  man  discreet,  far-seeing,  inflexible  in  following  his  convictions,  eminently 
God-fearing,  and  a  true  patriot;  in  William  Williams,  a  member  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  in  1776-77  and  again  in  1783-84.  a  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  ardent,  self-sacrificing,  passionate  in  his  devotion  to 
his  country,  who  one  hundred  years  ago  today  represented  this  State,  repre- 
sented this  town  in  that  great  proceeding  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia; 
in  Joseph  Trumbull,  a  commissary-general  and  the  first  commissary-general 
of  the  national  army,  whose  brilliant  career  was  cut  short  by  an  early  death, 
hastened  by  his  strenuous  devotion  to  his  difficult  duties  in  organizing  this 
department  of  the  army;  in  John  Trumbull,  an  aide-de-camp  to  Washington, 
an  adjutant-general  to  General  Gage,  and  a  painter  who  acquired  a  distin- 
guished reputation  from  his  delineation  of  national  scenes  and  from  his  por- 
traits of  distinguished  men  of  the  Revolutionary  period ;  in  Jonathan  Trum- 
bull, Jr.,  a  paymaster  to  the  northern  department  of  the  army,  a  first  aide-de- 
camp and  private  secretary  to  Washington,  a  member  of  his  family,  and 
enjoying  his  high  esteem.  Capt.  James  Clark  commanded  a  company  in  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  was  in  the  battles  of  Harlem  Heights  and  White 
Plains.  Lieut.  Andrew  Fitch  was  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  in  the 
service  to  the  close  of  the  war.  John  Wheelock,  son  of  President  Wheelock, 
of  Dartmouth  College,  afterwards  himself  president,  served  as  lieutenant- 
colonel  in  the  Continental  army,  and  was  a  member  of  the  stafT  of  General 
Gage. 

Lebanon  has  done  well  in  the  men  whom  in  different  periods  it  has 
furnished — six  governors  of  States,  five  of  them  of  this  State,  who  held  the 
office  thirt;--seven  years,  and  one  of  them  (William  A.  Buckingham)  a  second 
War  Governor,  and  a  worthy  successor  of  the  first ;  resolute,  indefatigable, 
large-hearted,  vigorous,  and  upright  in  administration,  and  of  a  character  to 
command  universal  esteem  and  affection ;  Trumbull  and  Buckingham !  names 
that  honor  the  town,  honor  the  State,  honor  the  nation.  In  all  the  list  of 
honored  men  from  the  beginnings  have  there  been  abler,  better  governors 
than  the  Trumbulls.  Bissel,  and  Buckinghams?  Four  senators  in  Congress; 
seven  representatives  in  Congress,  and  one  of  them,  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Jr., 
speaker  of  the  Second  Congress;  five  judges  of  higher  courts,  and  two  chief 
justices :  a  colored  m.an  in  Prince  Saunders,  connected  for  a  time  with  Dart- 
mouth College,  who  was  minister  from  Hayti  to  Great  Britain,  and  attorney- 
general  of  that  government ;  and  a  large  number  of  ministers  of  the  gospel  and 
other  professional  men. 

At  the  dedication  of  the  War  Office  in  189T,  several  noteworthy  addresses 
were  made  that  bear  on  the  history  of  the  town.  The  account  of  the  celebra- 
tion, edited  by  Mr.  Jonathan  Trumbull  of  Norwich,  contains  several  inter- 
esting manuscripts  discovered  shortly  before  that  date.  We  quote  from  the 
speech  of  Hon.  N.  B.  Williams,  made  in  presenting  the  War  Office: 

Although  Lebanon  appears  to  have  been  exceeded  in  population  by 
thirteen  of  the  seventy-six  towns  enumerated  in  the  census  of  1774,  the  excess 
was  in  most  cases  slight,  and  the  population,  3,060,  is  by  no  means  an  adequate 
measure  of  the  importance  of  the  town  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution.  In 
the  grand  list  of  1776,  but  ten  towns  showed  a  higher  valuation  of  taxable 
property.  But  most  significant  of  all  is  the  fact  that  in  the  awards  for 
services  in  the  Lexington  Alarm,  but  two  towns  in  the  State,  W'indham  and 
Woodstock,  were  granted  larger  sums  of  money  as  their  compensation. 

X.I..— 1-13 


194 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


The  reasons  for  a  service  so  largely  in  excess  of  any  quota  which  Lebanon 
might  have  been  called  upon  to  furnish  at  this  time  seem  evident.  Here  were 
the  residence  and  home  office  of  the  only  colonial  governor  who  asserted  the 
rights  of  his  country  as  opposed  to  the  oppressive  measures  of  his  king,  which 
very  fact  must  have  given  to  that  all-potent  assemblage  of  the  day,  the  town 
meeting,  an  inspiration  and  force  which  it  might  otherwise  have  lacked. 
Owing  to  the  location  of  the  town  and  the  fact  that  the  governor  resided 
there,  Lebanon  must  have  been  the  place  where  the  news  from  Boston  was 
usually  received  in  the  exciting  times  which  led  up  to  the  Revolution. 

Another  point  necessary  in  maintaining  our  independence  was  concert 
of  action,  and  the  War  Office  was  the  great  center  of  attraction  from  which 
such  an  influence  arose,  and  its  associations  in  this  respect  are  calculated  to 
touch  the  heart  of  every  patriot.  It  was  in  that  building  that  George  Wash- 
ington often  met  his  bosom  friend,  our  first  War  Governor,  and  the  only  one 
in  thirteen  colonies  in  whom  he  could  place  implicit  confidence.  In  that 
office  they  matured  plans  for  future  action.  It  was  there  that  important  war 
measures  originated,  dispatches  were  sent  to  the  army,  reports  returned, 
and  the  war  council  held  over  one  thousand  sessions.  During  some  of  the 
dark  days  of  the  Revolution,  so  dark  as  to  be  depressing  to  ordinary  minds, 
it  was  the  inspiring  words  that  went  forth  from  this  council — who  believed 
their  cause  was  the  cause  of  God — that  gave  hope  and  cheer  to  the  army  and 
renewed  courage  to  trust  in  Him  who  overrules  all  events,  to  "keep  their 
powder  dry"  and  "fight  on,  to  victory  or  to  death." 

It  was  military  headquarters  for  this  part  of  the  country,  and  its  floors 
have  been  trodden  by  Washington,  Trumbull.  Adams  (Samuel  and  John), 
Jefferson,  Putnam,  Franklin.  Knox,  and  many  others  of  note,  both  of  this 
country  and  France.  The  War  Office  was  the  center  of  influence  to  keep 
the  fires  of  the  Revolution  burning,  and  this  vast  assembly  shows  that  it 
will  take  more  than  another  century  to  kill  out  the  fire  that  burned  in  the 
bosoms  of  the  patriots  of  '76. 

I  rejoice  that  there  is  a  society  called  the  "Sons  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution." formed  for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating  the  memory  of  their  fathers 
and  preserving  as  memorials  those  relics  that  are  connecting  links  with  the 
Revolution,  and  it  affords  me  great  pleasure,  in  behalf  of  Mrs.  Wattles,  the 
donor  of  the  War  Office,  to  present  to  the  Societ>%  through  their  president, 
Mr.  Trumbull,  the  key  of  said  office.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  keep  it  in  a  state 
of  preservation,  for  what  you  have  already  done,  and  the  fact  that  the  blood 
of  the  Revolutionary  fathers  flows  in  your  veins,  is  sufficient  guarantee  for 
the  future. 

Also  a  poem  composed  for  the  occasion  by  Mr.  Thomas  S.  Collier: 


^^^lat  is  the  soul  of  a  nation? 

Lo.  is  it  not  deeds  well  done? 
Red  blood  poured  out  as  libation? 

Hard  toil  till  the  end  is  won? 
Swift  blows,  when  the  smoke  goes  drifting 

From  the  cannon,  hot  with  flame? 
And  work,  when  the  war  clouds,  lifting. 

Show  the  blazoning  of  fame? 
These  hold  that  affluence  golden, 

Bright  fire  of  sword  and  pen, 
Which  from  the  ages  olden 

Has  thrilled  the  hearts  of  men. 

Not  where  the  trumpets  bluster, 
And  answering  bugles  sound. 
As  mania]  legions  muster. 


Are  all  the  heroes  found; 
But  where  the  orchards  blooming 

Foams  white  the  hills  along. 
And  bees,  with  lazy  booming. 

Wake  the  brown  sparrow's  song. 
By  quiet  hearths  are  beating 

The  hearts  that  watch  and  wait. 
With  thought  each  act  completing. 

That  conquers  Time  and  Fate; 
Rounding  with  patient  labor 

The  work  of  those  who  died. 
Where  sabre  clashed  with  sabre 

Above  war's  sanguine  tide. 

Here  was  no  field  of  battle. 
These  hills  no  echoes  gave 


OTHER  TOWNS 


195 


Of  that  fierce  rush  and  rattle 

Whose  harvest  is  the  grave ; 
Yet  where  the  drums  were  calling, 

And  where  the  fight  was  hot, 
And  men  were  swiftly  falling 

Before  the  whistling  shot, 
No  soul  with  hope  was  stronger 

Than  that  which  blossomed  here — 
No  voice,  as  days  grew  longer, 

Was  louder  with  its  cheer. 

Ah,  souls  were  bent  and  shaken 

As  days  grew  into  years. 
And  saw  no  bright  hope  waken 

To  gleam  amid  the  tears — 
Heard  no  call,  triumph  sounding, 

From  mountain  side  and  gorge, 
Only  the  low  graves  rounding — 

The  gloom  of  Valley  Forge; 
Yet  here  a  strength  unbroken 

Met  all  the  storm-filled  days, 
Rising  sublime,  a  token 

Of  faith,  in  weary  ways. 

What  built  the  power,  unfolding 

Such  glorious  purpose,  when 
War's  carnival  was  holding 

High  feast  with  homes  and  men? 
When  grew  the  thought,  whose  glory 

Burned  like  a  sun  supreme, 
Above  the  fields,  all  gory 

With  battle's  crimson  stream? 
Where  bloomed  the  manhood,  keeping 

Such  steadfast  step  and  strong, 
When  the  red  sword  was  reaping 

The  harvesting  of  wrong? 

Here  in  the  peace,  and  tender 

Warm  light  of  heart  and  hearth. 
Was  born  that  virile  splendor 

Which  filled  the  waiting  earth,^ 
That  flame  of  Freedom,  rising 

In  broadening  waves  of  light, 
The  souls  of  men  surprising. 

And  lifting  them  from  night: 
Here,  and  in  kindred  places. 

The  fire  that  all  could  see 
Shone  from  determined  faces. 

And  taught  men  to  be  free. 

Why  are  we  gathered  together? 

The  land  is  full  of  peace. 
And  high  in  the  halcyon  weather 

The  songs  of  labor  increase. 
What  makes  the  drums  beat,  ringing 

Their  challenge  to  the  hills? 
Why  are  the  bugles  flinging 

Swift  calls  to  marts  and  mills? 
Because  these  walls  have  cherished 

A  memory  bright  and  high ; 
No  name  they  knew  has  perished, 

For  deeds  can  never  die; 


And  here,  when  hearts  were  beating. 

Half  hoping,  half  in  fear. 
Strong  souls,  in  council  meeting, 

Spoke  firm,  and  loud,  and  clear. 

There  was  no  weak  denying, 

There  was  no  backward  glance, 
But  where  the  flags  were  flying, 

And  red  shone  sword  and  lance, 
Their  words  rang  swift  and  cheerful. 

And  skies  grew  bright  again, 
For  those  whose  hearts  were  fearful, 

For  these  were  master  men  ; 
And  one  led,  who  unknowing 

Linked  to  the  land  his  name. 
By  earnest  manhood  showing 

How  near  we  live  to  fame. 

Ours  is  the  sunlit  morning — 

Ours  is  the  noontide's  gold — 
And  the  radiant  light  adorning 

The  paths  once  dark  and  cold; 
But  the  savor  of  our  treasure 

Was  the  salt  of  toil,  and  tears, 
And  want,  that  filled  the  measure 

Of  long  and  bitter  years ; 
We  drink  the  wine  of  gladness. 

We  reap  the  harvest  sheaves. 
Whose  seed  was  sown  in  sadness, 

And  the  drift  of  yellow  leaves; 
With  faith,  and  not  with  grieving. 

Was  built  the  mighty  past; 
What  good  gift  are  we  leaving 

To  those  who  follow  fast? 
What  thought,  what  deed,  what  glory 

Shall  mark  this  epoch  ours. 
And  leave  our  names  and  story 

High  set  where  grandeur  towers? 

What  thing  shall  make  men  cherish 

The  memory  of  today? 
All,  actions  will  not  perish 

Though  monuments  decay. 
We  see,  spread  out  before  us. 

The  fairest  land  of  earth. 
Loud  with  the  ringing  chorus 

That  only  here  has  birth : 
Ours  is  the  holy  duty 

To  build,  with  firmer  hand. 
This  heritage  of  beauty. 

That  it  may  ever  stand ; 

Our  deeds  should  make  more  lasting 

The  freedom  that  has  grown 
From  toil,  and  tears,  and  fasting, 

And  strength  of  blood  and  bone. 
Then  like  the  blossoms  vernal 

That  with  the  spring  combine. 
Our  age  will  shine  eternal. 

To  all  mankind  a  sign ; 
A  star  serene,  yet  showing 

Near  kindred  to  the  sun. 
Whereon  these  names  are  glowing — 

Trumbull  and  Washington. 


196  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

We  quote  also  from  an  address  by  Rev.  Leonard  W.  Bacon: 

But  a  contrast  as  startling  and  intense  as  the  canvas  of  history  has  ever 
exhibited  was  that  which  was  exhibited  here  on  Lebanon  green  when  the 
French  regiments  lay  cantoned  here  in  winter  quarters.  Where,  in  American 
history  at  least,  could  such  subjects  be  found  for  romance,  or  for  the  pencil 
of  historical  painter?  These  representatives  of  the  gayest,  most  brilliant, 
most  corrupt  and  vicious  court  in  Europe,  what  kind  of  figure  did  they  make 
in  the  midst  of  the  severe  simplicity  of  old  Lebanon?  We  are  not  without 
some  record  of  their  impressions  in  the  journal  of  the  Count  de  Rochambeau 
and  the  travels  of  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux.  But  the  contrast  between 
the  foremost  personage  among  the  Frenchmen  here,  the  gay  Duke  de  Lauzun, 
who  made  his  headquarters  at  the  house  of  David  Trumbull,  and  the  serious, 
precise  figure  of  the  governor  is  drawn  already  to  our  hand  by  the  graceful 
pencil  of  Donald  Mitchell. 

And  what  a  contrast  it  is — this  gay  nobleman,  carved  out,  as  it  were, 
from  the  dissolute  age  of  Louis  XV.,  who  had  sauntered  under  the  colonnades 
of  the  Trianon,  and  had  kissed  the  hand  of  the  Pompadour,  now  strutting 
among  the  staid  dames  of  Norwich  and  Lebanon !  How  they  must  have 
looked  at  him  and  his  fine  troopers  from  under  their  knitted  hoods !  You 
know,  I  suppose,  his  after  history — how  he  went  back  to  Paris,  and  among 
the  wits  there  was  wont  to  mimic  the  way  in  which  the  stiff  old  Connecticut 
governor  had  said  grace  at  his  table.  Ah !  he  did  not  know  that  in  Governor 
Trumbull,  and  all  such  men,  is  the  material  to  found  an  enduring  state;  and 
in  himself,  and  all  such  men,  only  the  inflammable  material  to  burn  one 
down.  There  is  a  life  written  of  Governor  Trumbull,  and  there  is  a  life  writ- 
ten of  the  Marquis  (Duke)  of  Lauzun.  The  first  is  full  of  deeds  of  quiet 
heroism,  ending  with  a  tranquil  and  triumphant  death ;  the  other  is  full  of  the 
rankest  gallantries,  and  ends  with  a  little  spurt  of  blood  under  the  knife  of 
the  guillotine  upon  the  gay  Place  de  la  Concorde. 

There  is  another  line  of  pedigree,  too,  down  which  the  influence  of  the 
great  names  and  examples  of  the  Lebanon  heroes  has  descended.  It  is  a  line 
not  always  as  easy  to  be  traced  as  that  of  natural  genealogy,  but  it  is  some- 
times clear  enough.  There  is  the  story,  for  instance,  of  the  country  boy  who 
grew  up  in  this  old  town  some  fourscore  years  ago,  where,  in  the  vast  ampli- 
tude of  the  town  street,  he  marked  the  traces  of  the  old  French  camp,  and 
where  every  house  was  inhabited  with  heroic  memories  and  traditions.  I 
love  to  imagine  the  handsome  little  fellow  wandering  thoughtfully  among 
the  gravestones  in  the  old  burying-ground,  that  tell  of  holy  ministers,  and 
brave  soldiers,  and  upright  citizens,  and  pausing  to  read  the  four  inscriptions 
on  the  Trumbull  monument,  recording  the  career  of  one  who,  by  the  force 
and  dignity  of  his  character,  rose  from  private  station  to  be  the  foremost  man 
in  all  the  commonwealth,  and,  next  to  Washington  himself,  the  chief  pro- 
moter of  his  country's  liberty.  I  love  to  imagine  how  that  shining  example 
of  a  Christian  patriot  dwelt  in  the  young  man's  mind  when  he  had  removed 
from  ancestral  Lebanon  to  Norwich  for  the  beginning  of  his  fair  career; 
and  how,  in  the  midst  of  daily  duties  in  counting-room  and  church  and 
municipal  business,  the  lineaments  of  that  heroic  Puritan  character  uncon- 
sciously reproduced  themselves  in  his  mind:  and  as  great  events  went  on, 
and  lifted  him  as  by  a  rising  tide  into  the  highest  station  in  the  State,  history 
for  once  consented  to  repeat  itself,  and  to  complete  that  impressive  parallel 
on  which  later  historians  of  Connecticut  will  delight  to  dwell,  between  the 
great  War  Governor  of  the  ^^''ar  for  Independence,  and  the  great  War  Gov- 
ernor of  the  War  for  the  Union  and  the  Constitution. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  speech  of  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Bucking- 
ham, a  brother  of  the  War  Governor  of  Civil  War  time: 


OTHER  TOWNS  197 

Such  were  some  of  the  people  who  had  the  early  guidance  of  affairs  and 
the  shaping  of  public  sentiment  in  this  New  England  town.  And  such  were 
some  of  the  moulding  influences  which  made  the  State  what  it  was,  and 
shaped  our  general  government;  and  wherever  they  have  been  carried  by 
emigration,  must  have  been  a  blessing,  as  they  have  been  here. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  emigration  from  this  town  was  going  on  to  "  'hio" 
— Ohio — "Genesee  county,"  in  and  about  Rochester,  New  York,  and  "up  coun- 
try," which  meant  Vermont.  Dartmouth  College,  under  President  Wheelock, 
then  "Moore's  Charity  School"  for  the  education  of  Indian  youth,  had  been 
taken  up  almost  bodily  and  transported  from  Columbia,  then  a  part  of  this 
town,  to  Hanover,  New  Hampshire,  just  across  the  river.  And  so  many  of 
the  settlers  went  with  it  from  this  vicinity  that  twenty  or  more  of  the  neigh- 
boring towns  in  Vermont  bear  the  names  of  Connecticut  towns  from  which 
the  settlers  came.  Indeed,  the  State  had  so  much  of  this  sentiment  in  it  that 
it  was  named  "New  Connecticut,"  and  the  name  was  only  changed  because 


their  ongm.  The  springs  where  mountain  streams  take  their  rise,  and  flow 
down  through  fertile  plains,  and  alongside  of  wealthv  cities,  to  enrich  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  and  bless  its  countless  inhabitants,  are  interesting 
spots  to  visit,  and  suggestive  of  what  smaller  towns  mav  have  done  for  the 
world  and  are  likely  to  do  in  the  future. 

The  list  of  Governors  which  this  town  has  furnished  to  the  State  is 
certainl-.-  remarkable,  both  in  number  and  character,  especially  considering 
its  population  and  business.  Entirely  an  agricultural  town,  with  never  more 
than  three  thousand  inhabitants,  it  has  filled  the  chair  of  State  with  such 
men  as  these,  and  for  such  terms  of  office:  Jonathan  Trumbull.  Sr.,  1769  to 
1784;  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Jr.,  1798  to  1809;  Clark  Bissell,  1847  to  1849; 
Joseph  Trumbull.  1849  to  1850;  William  A.  Buckingham.  1858  to  1866.  Here 
are  five  governors  from  the  same  town,  holding  the  office  bv  annual  election 
for  one-third  of  a  century,  and  filling  the  office  with  becoming  dignitv  and 
distinguished  usefulness.  We  do  not  wonder  at  the  pleasant  boast  of  the 
people  of  the  town: — "We  supply  Norwich  with  butter  and  cheese,  and  the 
State  with  governors,  especially  when  they  want  good  ones." 

The  proclamation  of  Governor  Jonathan  Trumbull,  dated  June  18,  1776, 
is  worthy  of  permanent  record : 

The  Race  of  Mankind  was  made  in  a  State  of  Innocence  and  Freedom, 
subjected  only  to  the  Laws  of  God  the  Creator,  and  through  his  rich  Goodness 
designed  for  virtuous  liberty  and  Happiness,  here  and  forever;  and  when 
moral  Evil  was  introduced  into  the  World,  and  Man  had  corrupted  his  Ways 
before  God,  Vice  and  Iniquity  came  in  like  a  Flood  and  Mankind  became 
exposed,  and  a  prey  to  the  Violence,  Injustice  and  Oppression  of  one  another. 
God  in  great  Mercy  inclined  his  People  to  form  themselves  into  Societj',  and 
to  set  up  and  establish  civil  Government  for  the  protection  and  security  of 
their  Lives  and  Properties  from  the  Invasion  of  wicked  men.  But  through 
Pride  and  ambition,  the  Kings  and  Princes  of  the  World  appointed  by  the 
People  the  Guardians  of  their  lives  and  liberties,  early  and  almost  universally 
degenerated  into  Tyrants,  and  by  Fraud  or  Force  betrayed  and  wrested  out 
of  their  hands  the  very  Rights  asd  Properties  they  were  appointed  to  protect 
and  defend.  But  a  small  part  of  the  Human  Race  maintained  and  enjoyed 
any  tolerable  Degree  of  Freedom.  Among  those  happy  few,  the  nation  of 
Great  Britain  was  distinguished  by  a  Constitution  of  Government  wisely 
framed  and  modelled  to  support  the  Dignity  and  Power  of  the  Prince,  for  the 


igS  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

protection  of  the  Rights  of  the  People,  and  under  which  that  Country  in  long 
succession  enjoyed  great  Tranquility  and  Peace,  though  not  unattended  with 
repeated  and  powerful  efforts,  by  many  of  its  haughty  Kings,  to  destroy  the 
Constitutional  Rights  of  the  People,  and  establish  arbitrary  Power  and  Do- 
minion. In  one  of  those  convulsive  struggles  our  Forefathers,  having  suffered 
in  that  their  native  Country  great  and  variety  of  Injustice  and  Oppression, 
left  their  dear  Connections  and  Enjoyments,  and  fled  to  this  then  inhospitable 
land  to  secure  a  lasting  retreat  from  civil  and  religious  Tyranny. 

The  God  of  Heaven  favored  and  prospered  this  Undertaking — made  room 
for  their  settlement — increased  and  multiplied  them  to  a  very  numerous 
People  and  inclined  succeeding  Kings  to  indulge  them  and  their  children 
for  many  years  the  unmolested  Enjoyment  of  the  Freedom  and  Liberty  they 
fled  to  inherit.  But  an  unnatural  King  has  risen  up — violated  his  sacred 
Obligations  and  by  the  Advice  of  Evil  Counsellors  attempted  to  wrest  from 
us,  their  children,  the  Sacred  Rights  we  justly  claim  and  which  have  been 
ratified  and  established  by  solemn  Compact  with,  and  recognized  by  his  Pre- 
decessors and  Fathers.  Kings  of  Great  Britain — laid  upon  us  Burdens  too 
heavy  and  grievous  to  be  borne  and  issued  many  cruel  and  oppressive  Edicts, 
depriving  us  of  our  natural,  lawful  and  most  important  Rights,  and  subjecting 
us  to  the  absolute  Power  and  Control  of  himself  and  the  British  Legislature; 
against  which  we  have  sought  Relief,  by  humble,  earnest  and  dutiful  Com- 
plaints and  Petitions:  But,  instead  of  obtaining  Redress  our  Petitions  have 
been  treated  with  Scorn  and  Contempt,  and  fresh  Injuries  heaped  upon  us 
while  hostile  armies  and  ships  are  sent  to  lay  waste  our  Countn,'.  In  this 
distressing  Dilemma,  having  no  Alternative  but  absolute  Slavery  or  success- 
ful Resistance,  this  and  the  United  American  Colonies  have  been  constrained 
by  the  overruling  laws  of  Self  Preservation  to  take  up  Arms  for  the  Defence 
of  all  that  is  sacred  and  dear  to  Freemen,  and  make  this  solemn  Appeal  to 
Heaven  for  the  Justice  of  their  Cause,  and  resist  Force  by  Force. 

God  Almighty  has  been  pleased  of  his  infinite  Mercy  to  succeed  our 
Attempts,  and  to  give  us  many  Instances  of  signal  Success  and  Deliverance. 
But  the  wrath  of  the  King  is  still  increasing,  and  not  content  with  before 
employing  all  the  Force  which  can  be  sent  from  his  own  Kingdom  to  execute 
his  cruel  Purposes,  has  procured,  and  is  sending  all  the  Mercenaries  he  can 
obtain  from  foreign  countries  to  assist  in  extirpating  the  Rights  of  America, 
and  with  theirs  almost  all  the  liberty  remaining  among  Mankind. 

In  this  most  critical  and  alarming  situation,  this  and  all  the  Colonies  are 
called  upon  and  earnestly  pressed  by  the  Honorable  Congress  of  the  American 
Colonies  united  for  mutual  defence,  to  raise  a  large  additional  number  of  their 
militia  and  able  men  to  be  furnished  and  equipped  with  all  possible  Expedi- 
tion for  defence  against  the  soon  expected  attack  and  invasion  of  those  who 
are  our  Enemies  without  a  Cause.  In  cheerful  compliance  with  which  request, 
and  urged  by  Motives,  the  most  cogent  and  important  that  can  affect  the 
human  Mind,  the  Genersl  Assembly  of  this  Colony  has  freely  and  unani- 
mously agreed  and  resolved,  that  upwards  of  Seven  Thousand  able  and 
effective  Men  be  immediately  raised,  furnished  and  equipped  for  the  great 
and  interesting  Purposes  aforesaid.  And  not  desirous  that  any  should  go  to 
a  warfare  at  their  own  charges  (though  equally  interested  with  others)  for 
defence  of  the  great  and  all-important  Cause  in  which  we  are  engaged,  have 
granted  large  and  liberal  Pay  and  Encouragements  to  all  who  shall  volun- 
tarily undertake  for  the  Defence  of  themselves  and  their  countn,'  as  by  their 
acts  mav  appear,  I  do  therefore  by  and  with  the  advice  of  the  Counsel,  and 
at  the  desire  of  the  Representatives  in  General  Court  assembled,  issue  this 
Proclamation,  and  make  the  solemn  Appeal  to  the  Virtue  and  public  Spirit 
of  the  good  People  of  this  Colony.  Affairs  are  hastening  fast  to  a  Crisis,  and 
the  approaching  Campaign  will  in  all  Probability  determine  forever  the  fate 


OTHER  TOWNS  199 

of  America.    If  this  should  be  successful  on  our  side,  there  is  little  to  fear  on 
account  of  any  other. 

Be  exhorted  to  rise  therefore  to  superior  exertions  on  this  great  Occasion, 
and  let  all  the  people  that  are  able  and  necessary  show  themselves  ready  in 
Behalf  of  their  injured  and  oppressed  Country,  and  come  forth  to  the  help 
of  the  Lord  against  the  Mighty,  and  convince  the  unrelenting  TjTant  ot 
Britain  that  they  are  resolved  to  be  Free.  Let  them  step  forth  to  defend  their 
Wives,  their  little  Ones,  their  Liberty,  and  everything  they  hold  sacred  and 
dear,  to  defend  the  Cause  of  their  Country,  their  Religion,  and  their  God. 
Let  every  one  to  the  utmost  of  their  Power  lend  a  helping  Hand,  to  promote 
and  forward  a  design  on  which  the  salvation  of  America  now  evidently  de- 
pends. Nor  need  any  be  dismayed  :  the  Cause  is  certainly  a  just  and  a  glorious 
one:  God  is  able  to  save  us  in  such  way  and  manner  as  he  pleases  and  to 
humble  our  proud  Oppressors.  The  Cause  is  that  of  Truth  and  Justice ;  he 
has  already  shown  his  Power  in  our  Behalf,  and  for  the  Destruction  of  many 
of  our  Enemies.  Our  Fathers  trusted  in  Him  and  were  delivered.  Let  us  all 
repent  and  thoroughly  amend  our  Ways  and  turn  to  Him,  put  all  our  Trust 
and  Confidence  in  Him — in  his  Name  go  forth,  and  in  his  Name  set  up  our 
Banners,  and  he  will  save  us  with  temporal  and  eternal  salvation.  And  while 
our  Armies  are  abroad  jeoparding  their  lives  in  the  high  Places  of  the  Field, 
let  all  who  remain  at  Home,  cry  mightily  to  God  for  the  Protection  of  his 
Providence  to  shield  and  defend  their  lives  from  Death,  and  to  crown  them 
with  victory  and  success. 

And  in  the  Name  of  the  said  General  Assembly  I  do  hereby  earnestly 
recommend  it  to  all,  both  Ministers  and  People  frequently  to  meet  together 
for  social  prayer  to  Almighty  God  for  the  outpouring  of  his  blessed  Spirit 
upon  this  guilty  land — That  he  would  awaken  his  People  to  Righteousness 
and  Repentance,  bless  our  Councils,  prosper  our  Arms  and  succeed  the  Meas- 
ures using  for  our  necessary  self  defence — disappoint  the  evil  and  cruel 
Devices  of  our  Enemies — preserve  our  precious  Rights  and  Liberties,  lengthen 
out  our  Tranquility,  and  make  us  a  People  of  his  Praise,  and  the  blessed  of 
the  Lord,  as  long  as  the  Sun  and  Moon  shall  endure. 

And  all  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  this  Colony  are  directed  and  de- 
sired to  publish  this  Proclamation  in  their  several  churches  and  congrega- 
tions, and  to  enforce  the  Exhortations  thereof,  by  their  own  pious  Example 
and  public  instructions. 

Given  under  my  Hand  at  the  Council  Chamber  in  Hartford,  the  i8th  day 
of  June  Anno  Domini  1776. 

JoNATH.^N  Trumbull. 

There  is  a  marked  difference  between  Jefferson's  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence of  July  4,  1776,  and  that  solemn  proclamation  of  Governor  Trum- 
bull of  twenty  days  earlier,  lately  discovered  by  the  keen  eye  of  Mr.  Hoadly, 
and  characterized,  perhaps  with  a  strained  use  of  the  word,  as  "the  Con- 
necticut Declaration  of  Independence."  The  one  starts  with  an  enumeration 
of  self-evident  truths,  and  with  a  doctrine  of  human  rights,  and  is  grounded 
on  the  principles  of  the  Contrat  Social  of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau.  The  other 
begins  with  the  creation  and  the  fall  of  man,  is  grounded  on  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, and  is  the  utterance  throughout  of  a  lofty  and  noble  religious  faith. 

Jefferson's  Declaration,  accepted  as  the  voice  of  the  American  people,  is 
famous  thoroughout  the  world.  The  proclamation  of  Trumbull  has  only  just 
now  been  rescued  from  its  century  of  oblivion  by  the  hand  of  the  patient 
antiquary.     But  we  may  safely  challenge  the  twentieth  century  to  pronounce 


200  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

between  the  two  as  to  which  is  the  nobler,  more  solemnly  eloquent,  document, 
and  the  worthier  of  the  great  theme  which  is  common  to  them  both. 

Ledyard. — Ledyard  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Preston,  on  the  east  by 
Stonington  and  North  Stonington,  on  the  south  by  Groton,  and  on  the  west 
by  the  Thames.  From  the  article  written  by  Captain  William  T.  Cook,  over 
forty  years  ago,  we  quote  briefly: 

The  Pequot  Indians  were  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  this  section  of  the 
country.  They  were  a  warlike  race,  more  savage  than  the  surrounding  tribes, 
and  more  unfriendly  towards  the  whites,  although  there  is  no  record  of  any 
Indian  battle  taking  place  within  the  limits  of  what  is  now  known  as  the 
town  of  Ledyard. 

A  favorite  place  of  burial  seems  to  have  been  on  the  farm  now  owned 
by  Mr.  William  Fanning.  An  old  gentleman  who  was  present  at  the  opening 
of  one  of  these  graves  many  years  ago  gives  this  description  of  it :  A  circular 
opening  was  dug  in  the  earth,  and  the  body  placed  in  a  sitting  posture.  A 
stake  had  been  forced  into  the  ground  perpendicularly  in  front  of  it;  a  nail 
was  driven  into  the  stake,  on  which  was  hung  a  looking-glass  opposite  the 
face  of  the  dead,  who  was  supposed  to  be  a  female.  Two  earthen  bowls  were 
also  deposited  in  the  grave ;  these  were  supposed  to  contain  the  succotash 
to  be  used  as  food  on  the  journey  to  the  spirit-land.  The  finding  of  these 
articles  in  this  grave  shows  that  the  body  was  placed  there  after  the  country 
v/as  settled  by  the  whites.  The  glass  and  bowls  dropped  in  pieces  on  being 
exposed  to  the  air.  In  the  grave  where  another  body  was  laid  years  after 
were  buried  a  gun  with  seven  pounds  of  powder  and  seven  pounds  of  shot 
for  the  use  of  the  hunter  when  he  should  arrive  at  the  "happy  hunting- 
grounds."  A  white  man  is  said  to  have  coveted  these  then  precious  articles 
and  hired  a  man  to  rob  the  grave,  but  his  courage  failed  before  the  time  came 
for  the  attempt  to  be  made,  and  the  Indian  is  supposed  to  still  retain  his 
gun  and  ammunition. 

The  last  "Retreat"  (so-called)  of  the  Pequots  is  a  portion  of  it  situated 
in  the  northeast  part  of  this  town.  This  reservation,  consisting  originally  of 
nine  hundred  acres,  was  called  in  the  Indian  dialect,  Mashantucket.  It  is  now 
known  as  "Indian  Town."  The  tribe  has  been  gradually  dwindling  away, 
and  probably  at  this  day  there  is  not  a  pure  blood  left. 

Miss  Caulkins  gives  the  names  of  early  settlers  as  follows :  Christopher 
Averjs  Robert  Allyn,  Philip  Bell,  Jonathan  Brewster,  William  Chapman, 
Edward  Culver,  Silas  Dean,  Edmund  Fanning,  George  Geer,  John  Hurlbutt, 
William  Maynard,  Benadam  Gallup,  Tames  Morgan,  Isaac  Lamb,  Robert 
Park,  Peter  Spicer,  Ralph  Stoddard,  Ezekiel  Turner,  and  William  Williams. 
Other  names  were  added  afterwards. 

Jonathan  Brewster,  one  of  the  early  settlers,  came  to  America  in  1621 ;  his 
wife  Lucretia  was  one  of  the  original  "Mayflower"  Pilgrims,  and  was  the 
daughter-in-law  of  Elder  William  Brewster  of  Plymouth  fame.  Silas  Dean, 
Jr.,  born  in  Ledyard,  was  graduated  at  Yale  in  1758,  and  was  one  of  the  three 
commissioners  appointed  b}-  Congress  to  urge  France  to  acknowledge  the 
independence  of  the  United  Colonies.  Allyn's  Point  and  Stoddard's  Wharf 
still  bear  the  name  of  the  original  settlers  in  these  places.  Gale's  Ferry,  as 
the  name  suggests,  indicates  the  ocupation  of  a  former  proprietor. 

The  original  settlement,  then  a  portion  of  Groton,  soon  obtained  permis- 


OTHER  TOWNS  201 

sion  from  the  legislature  to  organize  an  ecclesiastical  society.  The  parish 
was  incorporated  in  1724  as  North  Groton.  The  town  of  Ledyard  was  incor- 
porated January  i,  1836,  taking  its  name  from  Col.  William  Ledyard,  of  Fort 
Griswold  fame.  The  town  contained  about  2,000  inhabitants.  The  popu- 
lation has  since  that  day  grown  less.  Farm.ing  constitutes  the  main  occupa- 
tion of  the  people.  Among  the  men  who  have  gained  national  fame  is  Asa 
Whitney,  the  projector  of  the  first  Pacific  railroad. 

Lisbon. — Lisbon  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Windham  county,  on  the 
east  by  Griswold,  on  the  south  by  Preston,  on  the  west  by  Norwich  and 
Sprague.  Originally  claimed  by  the  town  of  Norwich,  it  was  granted  on 
certain  conditions  to  the  Mohegan  chief  Owaneco  and  his  followers.  An 
extract  from  Miss  Caulkins'  "History  of  Norwich"  shows  how  difficult  it 
was  for  the  settlers  to  deal  satisfactorily  even  with  friendly  Indians: 

On  this  grant  the  sachem  gathered  his  special  clan,  probably  some  twenty 
or  thirty  families.  An  annual  tribute  of  ten  deerskins  was  at  first  demanded 
of  them,  but  the  scarcity  of  deer  in  the  vicinity  rendered  that  regulation  a 
dead  letter.  Moreover,  the  village  was  soon  broken  up  by  the  war  with 
Philip,  which  called  the  sachem  and  his  warriors  to  the  field  and  scattered 
the  women  and  children  among  their  neighbors.  When  the  conflict  was  over 
a  part  of  this  tract  was  assigned  to  the  Indian  fugitives,  called  Surrenderers, 
and  in  May,  1678,  Mr.  Fitch  reported  to  the  government  that  twenty-nine 
families  of  this  class  had  settled  upon  it  under  the  supervision  of  the  English. 

By  a  deed  of  trust,  December  22,  1680,  Owaneco  assigned  to  James  Fitch, 
Jr.,  the  care  and  disposition  of  all  his  lands  on  Quinnebaug  river.  A  few 
years  later,  absolute  deeds  of  sale  of  these  and  other  tracts  of  land  were 
executed  by  the  sachem  in  favor  of  the  same  Captain  Fitch.  In  1695,  Owaneco 
and  Samuel  Mason,  who  by  his  own  choice  and  the  authority  of  the  govern- 
ment had  been  appointed  his  trustee,  requested  that  a  committee  of  the  town 
should  be  empowered  to  survey  the  three-hundred-acre  grant  and  fix  its 
bounds.  The  next  year  Captain  Fitch,  being  then  proprietary  clerk,  recorded 
the  whole  grant  to  himself,  as  included  in  the  large  purchases  he  had  made 
of  Owaneco  in  1684  and  1687.  The  town  entered  a  formal  protest  against  the' 
claims  of  Captain  Fitch,  particularly  to  the  three  hundred  acres  at  Quinne- 
baug Falls,  which  had  been  guaranteed  to  the  Indians  with  a  proviso  that  it 
should  not  be  alienated.  The  course  of  Captain  Fitch  in  regard  to  these  Indian 
purchases  was  distasteful  to  the  town,  and  no  clear  account  can  be  given  of 
the  basis  upon  which  the  difficulty  was  settled.  Apparently  the  town,  after 
some  murmuring,  acquiesced  in  the  claim  of  Captain  Fitch  to  what  was  called 
the  eighteen-hundred-acre  grant. 

Also: 

The  settlement  of  Newent  was  for  many  years  obstructed  by  the  diversity 
of  claims  arising  from  a  confusion  of  grants  and  conveyances.  In  1723  a 
committee  was  appointed  "to  enquire  into  and  gain  as  good  an  understanding 
as  they  can  come  at  respecting  the  Indians  land  in  the  Crotch  of  Ouinebaug 
and  Showtuckct  rivers." 

In  1725  the  proprietors  of  the  common  and  undivided  land  put  an  end 
to  all  controversy  by  giving  a  quit-claim  deed  to  Captain  Jabez  Perkins,  Lieut. 
Samuel  Bishop,  Mr.  Joseph  Perkins,  and  Mr.  John  Safford  of  all  the  Indian 
land  in  the  crotch  of  the  rivers,  and  of  all  contained  in  Major  Fitch's  eightcen- 
hundred-acre  grant,  for  the  sum  of  seventy-five  pounds  money  in  hand  paid 
to  said  proprietors,  provided  that  the  Indians  shall  be  allowed  to  remain  and 


202  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

occupy  the  tract  that  had  been  secured  to  them.  To  these  purchasers  and 
to  those  who  should  claim  under  them  the  town  confirmed  the  title  of  rever- 
sion. The  Indians  dwindled  away,  and  in  1745  the  descendants  of  Owaneco 
and  other  principal  Mohegans,  for  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
pounds,  executed  a  quit-claim  deed  of  the  Indian  reservation  in  favor"  of  the 
English  claimants.  This  instrument,  which  extinguished  the  last  aboriginal 
claim  to  land  in  the  Nine-mile  square,  was  in  substance  as  follows: 

Ann  alias  Cutoih,  Betty  Ancum  widow,  Wedemow  daughter  of  Mahomet 
deceased,  Ann  otherwise  young  Ben's  wife,  all  of  whom  are  descendants  of 
Owaneco.  late  sachem  of  ^Iohegan,  and  the  said  young  Ben  of  Ben  Uncas  Jr. 
and  Daniel  Panganeck,  all  of  Mohegan,  for  the  consideration  of  137  pounds 
in  bills  of  credit — to  Captain  Samuel  Bishop,  Joseph  Perkins,  Jacob  Perkins, 
John  Safford,  Joseph  Saflord,  and  Solomon  Safford,  to  all  of  them  in  propor- 
tion as  they  now  possess — do  now  relinquish  all  right  and  title  to  the  tract 
of  300  acres  more  or  less  in  Xewent.  in  the  crotch  of  the  rivers  of  Quinebaug 
and  Showtucket,  called  the  Indian  Land,  abutting  southeasterly  on  the  Quine- 
baug, April  9,  1745. 

\^'itnesses,  Is.xac  Huxtixgtox, 

As.^    WORTHINGTON. 

Lyme  and  Old  Lyme. — On  the  north  the  town  of  Lyme  is  bounded  by 
East  Haddam  and  Salem,  on  the  east  by  East  Lyme,  on  the  south  by  Old 
Lyme,  and  on  the  west  by  the  Connecticut  river.  This  portion  of  the  original 
town  of  Lyme  is  not  the  oldest  portion,  though  it  retains  the  original  name. 
In  1665  the  town  of  Lyme  was  set  ofT  from  Saybrook.  In  1816  a  part  of  the 
town  was  set  off  with  part  of  Waterford  to  form  the  town  of  East  Lyme. 
In  1855  another  portion,  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  oldest  settled  part,  was  set 
off  to  form  Old  Lyme.  The  original  articles  of  agreement  between  Saybrook 
and  Lyme  were  as  follows : 

Whereas  there  hath  been  several  propositions  betwixt  the  inhabitants 
of  east  side  of  the  River  and  the  inhabitants  on  the  West  side  of  the  River  of 
the  towne  of  Saybrok  towards  a  Loving  parting,  the  inhabitants  on  the  east 
side  of  the  River  desiring  to  be  a  plantation  by  themselves ;  doe  declare  that 
thev  have  a  competency  of  Lands  to  entertaine  thirty  families. 

They  declare  that  they  will  pay  all  arears  of  rates  past  and  all  rates  due 
by  the  2  of  May  next  ensuing  that  belongs  unto  the  towne  and  ministn,',  to 
be  brought  into  the  townsmen  in  the  town  plots,  to  wit;  Richard  Rayment 
and  Abraham  Post  now  in  Place.  At  the  request  of  thos  on  the  east  side  of 
the  River  to  abate  them  ther  proportion  belongin  to  the  ministry  from  the 
furst  of  May  to  the  latter  end  of  January  next  ensuing,  the  towns  doe  consent 
ther  unto,  and  in  case  they  have  not  a  minister  selected  amongst  the.  then 
thev  are  to  pay  rates  to  the  minister  on  the  west  side,  as  formerly,  unless  a 
minister  be  settled  amongst  them. 

In  reference  to  the  Lands  of  hamanasuk,  they  on  the  east  side  of  the 
River  doe  fully  and  freely  Resign  all  their  Rights,  titles,  and  claims  to  all 
and  every  parcels  of  the  Lands  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  West  Side,  engaging 
themselves  to  afford  what  help  they  have  amongst  them  for  the  Recovery 
of  those  Lands,  they  being  Resonablv  considered  for  their  pains.  That  the 
Indians  at  Nehantick  have  the  Land  agreed  upon  by  the  covenant  maid 
betwixt  the  inhabitants  of  Saybrook  and  them. 

The  above  laid  articles  being  agreed  upon  by  the  comites  chosen  on  both 
sides  of  the  River,  the  inhabitants  east  side  have  Liberty  to  be  a  plantation 
of  themselves.     In  witness  whereof  the  comites  on  both  sides  have  sett  to 


OTHER  TOWNS  203 

their  hands.  Signed  by  John  Waldo,  William  Pratt,  Robert  Luze,  William 
Parker,  Zachariah  Sanford,  for  the  west  side;  Nathan  Griswold,  William 
Waller,  Renald  Marvin,  John  Luze,  Sr.,  Richard  Smith,  John  Comstock,  for 
the  east  side. 

It  would  perhaps  be  fairer  to  speak  of  Lyme  as  North  Lyme,  for  the  his- 
toric interest  of  Old  Lyme  is  much  greater  than  that  of  Lyme  itself.  In 
spite  of  the  legal  separation  of  these  towns,  their  history  is  one  from  the 
original  settlement  until  1855.  Miss  Martha  Lamb,  writing  for  "Harper's 
Magazine"  in  1876,  said  of  it: 

It  was  settled  over  two  centuries  ago  (in  1666)  by  an  active,  sensible, 
resolute,  and  blue-blooded  people,  who  gave  it  a  moral  and  intellectual  char- 
acter which  it  has  never  outgrown.  Its  climate  is  one  of  perfect  health,  and 
its  people  live  to  a  great  age.  The  salty,  bracing  atmosphere  tends  towards 
the  increase  of  mental  vigor  as  well  as  length  of  years,  hence  the  results 
which  we  are  about  to  chronicle.  It  is  a  town  which  has  kept  pace  with  the 
times.  It  has  been  near  enough  the  metropolis  to  partake  of  its  literary 
culture  and  many-sided  opportunities,  and  sufficiently  remote  to  escape  its 
dissipating  wastes,  and  it  has  always  maintained  a  self-respecting  inner  life. 
It  is  exceptionally  rich  in  family  reminiscences,  occupies  in  a  certain  sense 
historic  ground,  and  possesses  elements  of  national  interest.  Lyme-Rcgis 
is  said  to  have  been  famous  for  its  physicians.  Lyme  is,  or  ought  to  be, 
famous  for  its  lawyers,  as  it  has  produced  more  than  any  other  town  of  its 
size  on  this  continent,  or  any  other  continent,  and  not  only  lawyers,  "whose 
trade  it  is  to  question  everything,  yield  nothing,  and  talk  by  the  hour,"  but 
eminent  judges,  senators,  and  governors,  its  latest  and  grandest  achievement 
being  a  chief  justice  of  the  United  States. 

Lyme  was  formerly  a  part  of  Saybrook,  the  settlement  of  which  com- 
menced in  1635.  The  region  was  selected  for  the  commencement  of  empire 
by  Cromwell.  Hampden,  and  several  English  noblemen  who  had  become 
dissatisfied  with  the  management  of  civil  and  religious  afifairs  under  Charles  I., 
and  fully  determined  to  remove  permanently  to  the  wilds  of  America.  They 
organized  a  company,  and  secured  a  patent  for  a  large  portion  of  Connecticut, 
and  sent  John  Winthrop  the  younger  to  take  posession  and  build  a  fort  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut,  and  it  was  called  Saybrook,  in  honor  of  Lord 
Say  and  Seal  and  Lord  Brook,  who  were  foremost  in  pushing  the  enterprise 
It  was  located  on  a  peninsula,  circular  in  form,  and  connected  to  the  mainland 
by  a  narrow  neck,  over  which  the  tide  sometimes  flowed,  and  was  considered 
safe  from  anj'  sudden  incursion  of  the  Indians.  Two  great  handsome  squares 
were  laid  out  on  the  rolling  land  near  the  fort,  designed  as  a  building  site  for 
palatial  residences. 

Colonel  George  Fenwick  was  the  only  one  of  the  original  patentees  who 
came  to  abide  in  Saybrook.  Cromwell  and  some  others  actually  embarked 
in  the  Thames,  but  were  stopped  by  an  order  from  the  king.  Colonel  Fen- 
wick was  accompanied  by  his  young,  lovely,  golden-haired,  sunny-tempered 
wife,  Lady  Alice  Boteler.  She  had  been  reared  in  the  bosom  of  English 
luxury  and  refinement,  but  could,  however,  adapt  herself  to  pioneer  life,  and 
made  her  rude  home  in  the  quaint  fort  bright  with  wild-flowers  and  merry 
with  laughter.  She  brought  with  her  a  "shooting-gun,"  with  which  she  used  to 
practice,  to  the  great  diversion  of  her  neighbors,  and  she  had  "pet  rabbits," 
and  a  little  garden  which  grew  table  delicacies.  She  was  fond  of  out-of-door 
exercises,  and  was  often  seen  cantering  over  the  country  on  horseback.  She 
had  few  associates:  Mrs.  John  Winthrop,  whose  home  during  that  period 
was  on  Fisher's  Island ;  Mrs.  Lake,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Winthrop ;  Mrs.  Anna 


204  ^EW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Wolcott  Griswold ;  and  Colonel  Fenwick's  two  sisters  (one  of  whom  married 
Richard  Ely),  comprised  about  the  whole  list.  She  died  after  nine  years  of 
Saybrook  life,  and  was  buried  within  the  embankment  walls  of  the  fort. 
Colonel  Fenwick  soon  after  returned  to  England,  where  he  was  one  of  the 
judges  who  tried  the  unhappy  Charles  I.  He  left  his  private  affairs  in  this 
country  in  charge  of  Matthew  Griswold.  who  erected  the  monument  over 
Lady  Fenwick's  grave,  which  for  two  and  a  quarter  centuries  was  an  object 
of  sorrowful  interest  on  the  treeless,  flowerless,  desolate  bluff  which  overlooks 
the  flats  and  shallows  of  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  river.  It  is,  however, 
no  longer  there,  but  occupies  a  shady  nook  in  the  old  Saybrook  Cemetery. 
Four  years  since  an  enterprising  railroad  corporation  found  the  world  so 
narrow  that  it  must  needs  plow  directly  through  this  sacred  spot,  and  not  only 
rob  us  of  the  last  shovelful  of  earth  which  our  heroic  ancestors  heaped  to- 
gether, but  heartlessly  overturn  the  "quiet  couch  of  clay"  upon  which  Lady 
Fenwick  had  so  long  rested.  Her  remains  were  reinterred  with  imposing 
ceremonies.  Her  golden  hair  was  found  in  a  perfect  condition,  or  nearly  so, 
and  a  lock  of  it  is  preserved  in  an  air-tight  box  in  the  Acton  Library  at 
Sa3'brook. 

Lyme,  notwithstanding  its  uneven  surface,  has  very  little  waste  land. 
Agriculture  and  the  raising  of  horses,  mules,  and  horned  cattle  have  been  a 
great  source  of  wealth  to  the  inhabitants,  particularly  in  former  years.  The 
shad-fisheries  in  the  Connecticut  have  also  yielded  large  profits,  and  shell  and 
other  fish  have  been  taken  plentifully  from  the  Sound.  The  town  has  a  thriftv, 
well-cared-for  appearance,  even  to  its  remotest  borders,  and  a  quiet,  uncon- 
scious aspect,  as  if  the  stormv  world  had  rained  only  peace  and  contentment 
upon  its  legendary  soil  and  historic  homes.  It  is  one  of  the  loveliest  nooks 
on  the  New  England  coast,  and  if  its  distinguished  sons  and  daughters  could 
all  be  gathered  home,  the  world  might  well  pause  to  exclaim,  in  figurative 
language.  "However  small  a  tree  in  the  great  orchard,  Lyme  is  a  matchless 
producer  of  fruit." 

Certainly  no  town  of  its  size  in  America  can  boast  a  more  wonderful  list 
of  sons  and  daughters  than  Lyme,  not  only  as  a  "mother  of  lawyers,"  but 
as  the  progenitor  of  man}^  famous  men  in  other  walks  of  life.  Lyme  has 
produced  at  least  one  author  of  note,  Rev.  E.  F.  Burr,  for  many  years  pastor 
of  the  Congregational  church  in  Lyme,  who  wrote  "Pater  Mundi,"  "Ecce 
Coelum,"  and  manv  other  well-known  volumes. 

The  beauty  of  the  scenery  of  Lyme  and  the  convenience  of  its  location 
have  m.ade  it  a  Mecca  for  artists.  Here  in  recent  years  Henry  Ranger,  Louis 
Dessar,  Childe  Hassam,  and  a  host  of  other  well-known  artists  have  lived  in 
the  summer  colony.  Lyme,  more  than  any  other  town  in  New  London  county, 
is  unspoiled  by  the  bustle  and  uproar  of  our  modern  age.  It  still  retains  the 
calm  and  restful  aspects  of  its  earlier  charms. 

The  deed  for  the  lands  in  the  town  of  Preston  was  signed  by  the  Mohegan 
chief  Owaneco  in  1687,  and  was  given  in  payment  for  damages  to  the  farms 
of  white  settlers  by  swine  belonging  to  the  Mohegans.  The  early  settlers 
came  from  Norwich,  the  first  being  Greenfield  Larrabee,  according  to  Miss 
Caulkins.  A  complete  list  of  these  settlers  may  be  found  in  her  history  of 
Norwich. 

Salem. — Salem,  incoroorated  in  1819,  was  set  off  from  Colchester,  Lyme 
and  IMontville.  It  lies  south  of  Colchester,  west  of  Montville,  and  is  bounded 
on  the  south  by  East  Lyme  and  Lyme.    Its  western  boundar>^  is  East  Had- 


OTHER  TOWNS  205 

dam,  in  Middlesex  county.  The  whole  region  was  claimed  by  the  Mohegan 
Indians,  who  asserted  that  the  purchase  from  Owaneco  was  illegal,  inasmuch 
as  that  sachem  had  been  intoxicated  when  he  signed  away  the  land.  The 
case  was  long  in  the  courts,  being  carried  to  England  in  the  time  of  Queen 
Anne.  Finally  the  Indians  were  made  wards  of  John  Mason  of  Stonington. 
The  matter  was  really  never  settled  so  far  as  the  courts  went,  but  was 
decided  by  the  event.    As  a  local  historian  says: 

Up  to  this  period  in  the  history  of  the  country  the  sound  of  the  wood- 
man's axe  was  not  heard,  and  the  wild  animals  of  the  forest  roamed  undis- 
turbed by  the  white  man.  The  feathered  flocks  filled  the  air,  and  the  aquatic 
bird  swam  on  the  bosom  of  her  many  lakes  in  undisturbed  quietude;  but 
gradually  her  hills  and  her  valleys  were  occupied  by  the  hardy  pioneer  from 
the  Old  World,  where  they  one  and  all  could  enjoy  the  freedom  of  religious 
liberty,  and  be  the  humble  possessors  in  fee  simple  of  an  heritage  not  imme- 
diately under  the  mandate  of  kings  and  potentates,  but  breath  the  air  of 
liberty  and  freedom,  and  feel  that  they  were  lords  of  their  own  manors. 
Society  began  to  shape  itself  by  the  stern  reason  of  necessity.  Laws  were 
enacted  and  scrupulously  kept,  both  religious  and  secular,  and  the  preacher 
was  regarded  as  a  man  of  such  superior  mind  and  intelligence  that  his  word 
was  regarded  as  the  highest  authority.  The  presumption  is  strong  in  support 
of  the  theory  that  there  were  few  or  no  settlers  in  this  town  prior  to  the  year 
1700,  yet  tradition  says  there  was  in  that  portion  of  Lyme  now  Salem,  orig- 
inally embraced  on  the  two-mile-wide  section  formerly  known  as  the  Lyme 
Indian  hunting-ground. 

By  various  grants  of  the  Connecticut  legislature,  by  land,  sales,  and 
immigration,  a  considerable  part  of  the  region  was  occupied.  Music  Vale 
Seminary,  founded  in  1833,  came  to  have  a  wide  reputation,  gaining  pupils 
from  widely  remote  points.  It  was  the  first  Normal  School  of  Music  in  the 
country. 

Four  towns — Bozrah,  Franklin,  Lisbon,  Montville — were  set  off  in  1786, 
largely  from  the  original  town  of  Norwich  (Montville  came  from  New 
London).  Their  early  history  was  linked  with  that  of  their  parent  towns. 
The  Fitch  family,  the  Bailey  family,  and  the  Hunt  family,  of  Bozrah;  the 
Kingsleys,  the  Huntingtons  and  other  families  of  Franklin ;  the  Hydes  of 
Lisbon ;  the  Palmers,  the  Robertsons,  the  Jeromes,  of  Montville,  were  but  a 
few  of  the  many  settlers  who  moved  out  from  Norwich  and  New  London, 
made  a  settlement,  established  a  place  of  worship,  and  became  independent 
of  parental  control.  Wherever  there  was  water  power,  they  established  mills, 
and  where  there  was  no  manufacturing,  they  created  prosperous  farming 
communities. 

The  detailed  study  of  any  one  of  these  little  settlements  will  reward  the 
investigator  who  appreciates  the  Puritan  virtues. 

The  backbone  of  American  liberty  is  found  in  such  men  and  women  as 
these.  In  all  the  greater  enterprises  of  State  and  Natiotj  they  did  their  part. 
The  Civil  War  found  them  ready  to  send  their  boys  to  save  the  Union,  and 
the  World  War  again  revealed  that  same  loyalty  to  the  ideals  of  liberty 
which  the  founders  of  our  republic  had  shown,  as  appears  in  the  military 
chapter  of  this  work. 


2o6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

North  Stonington  was  originally  the  North  Society  of  Stonington.  The 
situation  of  the  meeting  house  was  settled  only  after  prolonged  disagreement. 
The  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  as  early  as  1724  passed  a  vote  "that 
the  North  Society  of  Stonington  for  the  future  be  called  by  the  name  of  North 
Stonington."  Religious  discussions  led  to  a  separate  party  even  in  this 
parish,  and  harmony  was  not  restored  till  about  1824,  when  Rev.  Joseph 
Ayer  succeeded  in  reuniting  the  churches.  The  actual  creation  of  a  separate 
town  took  place  in  1806,  the  Legislature  insisting  on  the  name  North  Ston- 
ington rather  than  "JeflEerson,"  the  name  for  which  the  town  meeting  had 
voted. 

Sprague. — The  town  of  Sprague  was  incorporated  in  1861,  from  Lisbon 
and  Franklin,  taking  its  name  from  Governor  Sprague  of  Rhode  Islnad,  who 
started  a  large  cotton  mill  in  what  is  now  the  village  of  Baltic.  We  quote 
a  local  historian: 

This  town  in  the  rapidity  of  its  growth  resembles  the  changes  that  often 
take  place  in  western  clearings.  Lord's  bridge,  where  the  Shetucket  was 
spanned  to  unite  Lisbon  and  Franklin,  and  near  which  the  Lord  family 
dwelt  in  quiet  agricultural  pursuits  for  more  than  a  century — father,  son  and 
grandson  living  and  dying  on  the  spot — was  a  secluded  nook,  without  any 
foreshadowing  of  progress  or  visible  germ  of  enterprise.  A  grist  mill,  a  saw 
mill,  coeval  of  the  first  planters,  a  respectable  farm  house,  with  its  sign-post 
promising  entertainment,  and  two  or  three  smaller  tenements,  constituted 
the  hamlet.  Only  the  casual  floods  and  the  romantic  wildness  of  the  river 
banks  interfered  with  the  changeless  repose  of  the  scene. 

Suddenly  the  blasting  of  rock  and  the  roar  of  machinery  commenced; 
hills  were  upset,  channels  were  dug,  the  river  tortured  out  of  its  willfulness, 
and  amid  mountainous  heaps  of  cotton  bags  the  rural  scene  disappeared,  and 
Baltic  village  leaped  into  existence.  In  the  course  of  five  ^-ears  more  than 
a  hundred  buildings,  comprising  neat  and  comfortable  houses,  several  shops, 
a  church  and  a  school  house,  grouped  around  the  largest  mill  on  the  Western 
Continent,  had  taken  possession  of  the  scene,  the  whole  spreading  like  wings 
each  side  of  the  river  and  linking  together  two  distinct  towns. 

The  town  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Windham  county,  on  the  east  by 
Lisbon,  on  the  south  by  Norwich,  and  on  the  west  by  Franklin. 

Stonington. — The  town  of  Stonington  was  first  settled  under  the  leader- 
ship of  William  Chesebrough,  who  had  come  to  visit  John  Winthrop's  settle- 
ment at  Pequot,  but  preferred  the  region  further  east.  He  built  in  1649 
a  house  and  settled  with  his  family,  supposing  he  was  within  the  borders  of 
Massachusetts.  The  General  Court  of  Connecticut,  however,  claimed  juris- 
diction of  the  region.  In  1652,  after  considerable  effort,  he  obtained  a  grant 
for  himself  and  his  sons.  Other  settlers  came  gradually,  amongst  whom 
were  Thomas  Stanton,  Thomas  Miner.  Governor  Haynes,  Walter  Palmer, 
Capt.  George  Denison,  Capt.  John  Gallup,  Robert  Park,  and  their  families. 
Being  repeatedly  refused  incorporation  as  a  separate  town  by  the  General 
Court  of  Connecticut,  they  made  a  similar  request  of  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court.  The  disagreement  between  the  courts  of  the  two  colonies  was 
referred  to  the  commissioner  of  the  United  Colonies.  A  full  account  of  the 
documents  sent  and  received  may  be  found  in  the  -"History  of  Stonington," 
written  by  Mr.  Richard  A.  Wheeler. 


OTHER  TOWNS  '        207 

The  commissioners  in  1658  decided  that  the  region  east  of  the  Mystic 
river  belonged  to  Massachusetts,  the  portion  between  the  Mystic  river  and 
Pawcatuck  river  to  be  called  Southerntown.  Rev.  William  Thompson,  who 
had  come  to  the  settlement  in  1657,  was  for  two  years  preacher  to  the  settlers 
and  to  the  nearby  Indians,  a  remnant  of  the  Pequot  tribe  which  had  been 
defeated  by  John  Mason.  The  difficulties  of  the  settlers  were  increased  by 
the  claims  of  certain  men  from  Rhode  Island  who  had  secured  a  title  from 
one  of  the  Pequot  chiefs. 

The  Connecticut  charter  of  1662,  however,  fixed  the  eastern  boundary  of 
the  colony  at  Pawcatuck  river,  which  remains  the  boundary  of  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island  today.  Massachusetts  yielded  her  claims,  and  the  General 
Assembly  of  Connecticut  issued  a  charter  in  1662.  In  1665  the  name  Southern- 
town  was  changed  to  Mystic,  and  in  1666  the  name  Mystic  was  changed  to 
Stonington.  In  1668,  according  to  Mr.  Wheeler,  there  were  43  inhabitants, 
viz.:  Thomas  Stanton,  George  Denison,  Thomas  Miner,  John  Gallup,  Amos 
Richardson,  Samuel  Chesebrough,  James  Noyes,  Elisha  Chesebrough,  Thomas 
Stanton,  Jr.,  Ephriam  Miner,  Moses  Palmer,  James  York,  John  Stanton. 
Thomas  Wheeler,  Samuel  Mason,  Joseph  Miner,  John  Bennett,  Isaac  Wheeler, 
John  Denison,  Josiah  Witter,  Benjamin  Palmer,  Gershom  Palmer,  Thomas 
Bell,  Joseph  Stanton,  John  Fish,  Thomas  Shaw,  John  Gallup,  Jr.,  John  Frink, 
Edmund  Fanning,  James  York,  Jr.,  Nathaniel  Beebe,  John  Reynolds,  Robert 
Sterry,  John  Shaw,  John  Searls.  Robert  Fleming,  Robert  Holmes,  Nathaniel 
Chesebrough  for  Mrs.  Anna  Chesebrough,  his  mother,  Gershom  Palmer  for 
Mrs.  Rebecca  Palmer,  his  mother,  Henry  Stevens  and  Ezekiel  Main. 

A  home-lot  was  laid  out  for  each  inhabitant,  and  the  title  was  obtained 
by  lottery  on  the  following  conditions,  namely :  "If  built  upon  within  six 
months  and  inhabited  the  title  would  be  complete,  except  that  each  proprietor 
must  reside  on  his  lot  two  years  before  he  could  sell  it,  and  then  he  must  first 
offer  it  to  the  town  and  be  refused  before  he  could  sell  the  same  to  any  person 
and  give  good  title.  How  many  of  these  home-lots  were  built  upon  by  the 
then  inhabitants  cannot  now  be  ascertained." 

The  young  settlement  was  in  special  danger  at  the  time  of  King  Philip's 
War,  but  kept  the  Pequots  friendly  to  the  English.  Captain  George  Denison 
was  provost-marshal  of  New  London  county  during  the  war,  and  almost  every 
able-bodied  man  of  Stonington  took  part  in  it.  After  King  Philip's  War  the 
town  grew,  but  in  1720  a  portion  was  set  off  as  North  Stonington.  The 
general  conditions  of  a  settlement  at  Long  Point,  a  part  of  the  town  of 
Stonington,  are  interestingly  portrayed  in  a  document  from  the  Connecticut 
Archives,  quoted  by  Mr.  Wheeler : 

To  the  Honorable  General  Assembly  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut  to  be 
held  at  Hartford  on  the  second  Thursday  of  May  instant.  The  memorial 
of  William  Morgan,  Benjamin  Park,  John  Denison,  4th,  Joseph  Denison,  2d, 
Oliver  Hilbard,  Edward  Hancox,  Oliver  Smith,  and  the  rest  of  the  subscribers 
hereto  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  the  professors  of  the  established  Religion 
of  the  Colony,  living  at  a  place  called  Long  Point  in  Stonington  in  the 
County  of  New  London  humbly  sheweth,  that  they  are  scituate  near  four 
miles  from  any  meeting  house  and  that  the  inhabitants  living  at  said  Long 


2o8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Point  are  generally  poor  they  living  principally  by  the  whale  and  cod-fishery, 
there  carried  on,  to  the  public  advantage,  by  which  means  within  a  few 
years  said  place  has  increased  to  upwards  of  eighty  families  among  which  are 
twenty  widows,  seventeen  of  which  have  children  as  families  there  that  the 
whole  number  of  inhabitants  are  nigh  to  five  hundred,  that  there  is  not  among 
them  more  than  one  horse  to  ten  families,  so  that  but  very  few  are  able  to 
attend  meeting  at  the  meeting-house  except  those  that  are  robust  hardy  and 
used  to  travel  on  foot,  w^hich  are  very  few,  the  greater  number  of  said  inhabi- 
tants consisting  of  women  and  children,  that  thereupon  the  society  have  for 
several  years  consented  to  have  one  sermon  preached  a  said  point  every 
Sabbath  by  their  Rev.  Pastor,  which  he  has  performed  and  is  still  willing  to 
continue,  but  their  number  has  so  increased  that  it  is  very  inconvenient  for 
those  that  do  attempt  public  worship  (as  they  have  no  where  to  convene  but 
in  a  small  school  house  or  private  houses)  and  many  more  than  at  present  do 
attend  would  if  there  was  room  to  accommodate  them ;  that  for  the  want  of 
a  proper  place  to  meet  in  for  the  celebrating  divine  service,  many  who  means 
the  Sabbaths  are  misspent  and  may  be  more  and  more  misspent  and  pro- 
phaned,  that  those  who  would  be  glad  to  build  a  house  and  maintain  preach- 
ing and  good  order  among  them  have  been  and  continue  unable  of  themselves 
to  bear  the  expense,  by  which  the  cause  of  religion  much  sufiFers  there,  and 
the  good  people  among  them  greatly  fear  the  increase  of  vice  and  irreligion. 
That  the  town  of  which  your  memorialists  are  a  part,  have  lately  paid  and 
are  liable  to  pay  upwards  of  one  thousand  pounds  for  the  deficiency  of  sev- 
eral collectors  that  have  lately  failed  that  your  memorialists  from  great  neces- 
sit3%  by  their  being  very  remote  from  any  constant  grist  mill,  have  lately  con- 
tributed about  i~o  as  an  incouragement  to  an  undertaker  to  build  a  wind  mill 
at  said  point,  which  with  about  the  same  sum  lately  subscribed  by  said  in- 
habitants for  a  schoolhouse,  with  the  great  labour  and  expense  they  have 
been  at  to  make  roads  and  causeways  to  said  point,  all  which  with  the  poor 
success  that  attended  the  last  years  fishery,  and  the  lowness  of  markets  and 
the  various  and  dift'erent  sentiments  in  the  religious  denomination  of  chris- 
tians among  them,  viz. :  First  day  Baptists,  Seven  day  Baptists  and  the  Quak- 
ers or  those  called  Friends,  are  such  real  grief  and  great  discouragements  to 
your  memorialists,  who  are  of  the  established  Religion  of  this  Colony,  that 
they  can  no  longer  think  of  obtaining  a  meeting-house  by  subscription  or 
any  other  waj-s  among  themselves. 

Wherefore  they  humbly  pray  that  libert\'  may  be  granted  to  build  a 
meeting  house  for  public  worship  at  said  Long  Point,  and  that  your  Hon- 
ours would  in  your  great  goodness  grant  them  a  Lottery  for  raising  a  sum 
sufficient  for  the  purpose  aforesaid  or  so  much  as  your  Honours  shall  think 
proper  under  such  restrictions  and  regulations,  as  your  Honours  shall  think 
fit,  and  3'our  memorialist  as  in  duty  bound  shall  ever  pray. 

It  was  not  at  all  uncommon  for  the  General  Assembly  to  grant  permis- 
sion for  churches  to  raise  money  by  lottery  in  those  days.  Permission  was 
twice  granted  to  the  Long  Point  settlers  to  raise  £400  by  lottery : 

At  a  general  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  holden  at  Hartford 
in  said  State  on  the  second  Thursday  of  May,  being  the  12th  day  of  said 
month,  and  continued  by  adjournments  until  the  ninth  day  of  June  next  fol- 
lowing Anno  Dom.  1785.  Upon  the  memorial  of  Nathaniel  Minor,  John 
Denison  3d  and  Joesph  Denison  2nd.  all  of  Long  Point  in  Stonington,  set- 
ting forth  that  they  with  others  of  the  first  Society  in  said  Stonington  were 
on  the  second  Thursday  of  October  1774  appointed  Managers  of  a  Lottery 
granted  bj^  the  Honorable  General  Assembly  to  your  Memorialists  William 
Morgan  and  others  of  the  established  Religion  of  the  then  Colony  of  Connec- 


OTHER  TOWNS  209 

ticut  for  the  purpose  of  raising  the  sum  of  £400,  to  build  a  Meeting  House 
at  said  Point.  That  said  Managers  proceeded  by  way  of  Lottery  to  raise  said 
sum  in  Continental  Bills  toward  the  close  of  the  summer  of  1777,  when  your 
Memorialists  for  whom  the  Grant  was  made,  not  being  apprehensive  of  the 
depreciation  that  would  attend  said  Bills  and  considering  the  great  scarcity 
and  dearness  of  materials  for  building  said  House  and  the  dangers  they  were 
then  exposed  to  from  the  enemy  who  were  then  at  New  York,  Newport  and 
Long  Island,  thought  best  for  the  Grantess  not  then  to  proceed  in  building 
said  House,  since  which  the  Bills  in  the  Hands  of  your  Memorialists  have 
depreciated  to  almost  nothing  except  a  part  which  has  been  turned  into  Public 
Securities,  Praying  that  a  Judicious  Committee  may  be  appointed  to  examine 
into  the  matters  of  said  Memorial  and  the  true  State  and  Circumstances  of 
the  money  which  they  hold  in  trust,  put  a  just  value  thereon,  and  that  said 
Committee  be  enabled  to  direct  said  Managers,  to  raise  on  said  Grant  such 
Sums  with  what  they  already  have  as  to  make  up  the  £400.  Granted  by  your 
Honors  as  per  memorial. 

Resolved,  by  this  Assembly  that  said  Nathaniel  Minor,  John  Denison,  and 
Joseph  Denison  2d  be  continued  as  Managers  of  said  Lottery  with  the  addi- 
tion of  James  Rhodes  and  Elijah  Palmer  of  said  Stonington,  and  that  the 
Honorable  William  Hillhouse  and  Benjamin  Huntington  Esqrs,  and  Elisha 
Lathrop  Esq.  be  and  they  are  hereby  appointed  a  committee  to  enquire  into 
the  state  and  circumstances  of  said  lottery  and  liquidate  and  settle  the 
Accounts  thereof,  and  ascertain  the  value  of  the  avails  thereof  in  the  Hands 
of  said  Managers,  and  in  case  said  Committee  shall  judge  it  to  be  reasonable, 
they  may  and  they  are  hereby  Authorized  and  impowered  to  direct  that  said 
Managers  proceed  to  Issue  and  draw  such  further  numbers  of  tickets  in  said 
Lottery  as  to  raise  such  sum  of  money  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  meeting 
House  at  said  Point  as  shall  be  thought  by  said  Committee  to  be  proper,  not 
exceeding  £400,  including  what  is  already  on  hand  as  aforesaid  and  exclusive 
of  the  cost  of  said  Lottery,  said  managers  to  be  accountable  to  the  General 
Assembly  when  requested  for  their  Doings  in  the  premises. 

James  Abbott  McNeil  Whistler,  the  great  artist,  passed  his  boyhood  in 
Stonington. 

Voluntown. — Situated  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  county,  Voluntown 
is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Windham  county,  on  the  east  by  RJiode  Island, 
on  the  south  by  North  Stonington  and  on  the  west  by  Griswold.  Its  forty 
square  miles  of  territory  supports  a  population  of  less  than  one  thousand 
people  who  are  for  the  most  part  farmers.  The  name  "Volunteers'  Town" 
comes  from  the  fact  that  the  land  was  given  in  1700  to  volunteers  of  the 
Narragansett  W^ar.  The  settlers  came  mostly  from  Norwich,  New  London 
and  Stonington.  In  1719  a  strip  of  land  to  the  north  was  granted  in  lieu 
of  a  portion  to  the  east  claimed  by  Rhode  Island. 

The  village  of  Pachaug  grew  up  from  cotton  manufacture  on  the  Pachaug 
river.  The  incorporation  of  the  town  took  place  in  1721,  but  lost  the  territory 
of  the  present  town  of  Sterling  in  1794.  Voluntown,  which  till  1881  was  in 
Windham  county,  was  annexed  to  New  London  county  at  that  date. 

Waterford.— Bounded  on  the  north  by  Montville,  on  the  east  by  the 
Thames  and  by  New  London,  on  the  south  by  Long  Island  Sound,  and  on 
the  west  by  East  Lyme,  Waterford  was  incorporated  as  a  town  in  1801,  being 
taken  from  New  London.  Its  forty  square  miles  are  devoted  chiefly  to  agri- 
culture and  quarrying,  though  there  is  some  manufacture  in  the  village  of 
Flanders. 

N.L.— 1-14 


HU-ME    oF     -NEW     LuXl-OX     CuUNTY     HISTOKIC.AL     SuinFTY.     NFW     LuXLiON. 
HEADQUARTERS  OF   GENERAL  GEORf.E   WAPHIXGTON. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  TODAY 

A   General   Review  —  250th   Anniversary   Celebration  —  The    Principal    Manufacturing 
Establishments  —  National  and  State  Officials  —  Recapitulation. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  make  a  general  review  of  the  recent 
developments  of  the  county,  showing  how  the  present  has  grown  from  the 
past,  and  summarizing  in  statistical  form  many  matters  that  have  been 
discussed  in  special  topics  in  foregoing  chapters. 

Topographically,  the  area  of  seven  hundred  square  miles  is  of  as  great 
interest  to  the  modern  business  man  as  it  is  to  the  geologist.  The  glacial 
action  that  left  the  rocks  in  the  fields,  the  wearing  down  of  river  beds  that 
produced  the  water  power  of  the  county,  the  deep  estuary  of  the  Thames, 
which  offers  one  of  the  best  harbors  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  have  resulted  not 
only  in  a  wonderful  variety  of  landscape,  but  also  in  a  remarkable  diversity 
of  industries.  A  climate  at  once  bracing  and  wholesome,  yet  not  too  severe 
for  open  air  labor  throughout  the  year,  has  conduced  to  the  success  of  agri- 
culture and  manufacturing.  Yankee  ingenuity  and  thrift,  combined  with  a 
spirit  of  enterprise  and  progress,  have  taken  advantage  of  natural  advantages 
to  develop  remarkable  prosperity.  Education,  in  school  and  out,  has  helped 
to  cultivate  the  best  ideals  of  American  citizenship.  And  while  sixty  per  cent. 
of  the  population  is  either  of  foreign  birth  or  foreign  parentage,  the  loyalty 
to  American  ideals  is  as  strong  today  in  our  county  as  it  was  fifty  years  ago. 
It  will  be  interesting  to  note  some  of  the  public  enterprises  that  have  been 
carried  out  in  recent  years. 

If  some  fifty-year  Rip  Van  Winkle  were  to  visit  us,  the  first  thing  he 
would  note  is,  doubtless,  the  improvements  in  our  roads.  With  State  sub- 
sidies have  been  combined  local  grants  to  make  a  splendid  network  of  road- 
ways that  make  the  county  at  once  smaller  and  stronger  than  ever  before. 
The  most  encouraging  thing  about  the  situation  is  that  the  public  is  still 
unsatisfied,  and  is  planning  greater  things  for  the  future. 

Our  Rip  might  not  at  first  comprehend  the  horseless  vehicles  that  have 
made  good  roads  a  necessity,  any  more  than  he  could  understand  the  thousand 
and  one  other  marks  of  scientific  advancement  of  the  age;  but  he  would 
undoubtedly  note  a  great  change  for  the  better,  and  in  a  few  hours  could 
traverse  a  region  that  formerly  required  days  of  travel.  Were  he  to  come 
by  train,  he  would  be  surprised  that  his  train  rushed  over  the  Connecticut 
river  and  the  Thames  unimpeded  by  the  need  of  delay  for  the  ferry.  New 
bridges,  indeed,  have  replaced  the  former  ones,  one  of  which  is  now  used  as 
a  highway  between  Groton  and  New  London,  while  over  the  Connecticut  is 
a  splendid  toll  bridge  built  by  the  State.  He  could  hardly  avoid  seeing  the 
million  dollar  pier  built  by  the  State  at  New  London,  and,  two  miles  upstream, 
the  large  naval  base  with  its  fleet  of  submarines  and  its  wealth  of  equipment. 
If  he  were  to  ask,  he  would  find  that  the  channel  of  the  Thames  has  been  we!! 
dredged,  so  that  ships  of  good  size  can  sail  to  its  head  at  Norwich. 


212  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

A  drive  up  the  military  highway  on  the  east  side  of  the  Thames  would 
reveal  Connecticut  College  on  the  heights  of  the  western  shore,  would  show 
him  the  State  Hospitals,  one  on  the  east  side  and  one  on  the  west,  near 
Norwich.  The  tall  chimneys  lining  the  river  would  remind  him  that  in  the 
last  fifty  years  the  county  has  entered  more  deeply  than  ever  into  manu- 
facturing. 

If  he  were  to  visit  Norwich.  New  London,  and  Stonington,  he  would  note 
with  approval  the  many  fine  public  buildings,  the  memorial  tablets  and  monu- 
ments, the  public  parks,  the  reservoirs,  the  improved  streets,  and  the  splendid 
school  buildings  under  construction  or  in  use  already.  Other  buildings  for 
public  use  such  as  libraries,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  buildings,  hospitals  and  church 
edifices,  would  show  great  improvement  over  those  of  his  day. 

All  of  the  advances  in  modern  science,  such  as  the  use  of  electricity  for 
light  and  power,  for  the  telephone  and  the  street  railway,  would  remind  him 
that  New  London  county  with  the  rest  of  the  world  had  entered  upon  a  new 
era  in  the  past  fifty  years.  The  points  of  historic  interest  to  the  tourist  are 
well  covered  in  several  handbooks.  A  brief  outline  of  these  will  serve  to  show 
why  the  tourist  and  summer  visitor  have  made  this  county  a  rendezvous, 
combining  as  it  does  natural  charm,  healthful  climate,  and  personal  ties  that 
reach  out  all  over  our  land.  The  real  history  of  New  London  county  would 
follow  its  children  in  their  westward  migrations  and  would  reveal  the  pioneer 
spirit  of  early  days,  expanding  throughout  the  upbuilding  of  many  other  sec- 
tions of  the  United  States. 

Starting  with  the  western  end  of  the  county  at  the  Connecticut  river 
toll  bridge,  eighteen  hundred  feet  long,  one  enters  Old  Lyme,  opposite  Say- 
brook,  famous  for  its  beauty,  unspoiled  by  modern  industrj\  The  meeting 
house  was  rebuilt  from  the  same  plans  as  the  former  one  of  1817  which  was 
burned  about  ten  years  ago.  The  plan,  said  to  be  copied  from  the  plans  of 
Sir  Christopher  Wren,  is  well  suited  to  the  simple  charm  of  the  town,  with 
its  wide  streets  and  overarching  elms.  In  Old  Lyme  a  notable  gathering  of 
eminent  artists  is  found  throughout  the  warmer  months.  Their  annual  exhibi- 
tion is  a  noteworthy  event.  For  permanent  exhibits  an  Art  Gallery  has  been 
erected  on  Old  Lyme  street.  The  Grisv.'old  House  (not  to  be  confused  with 
the  Griswold  Hotel  at  Groton)  is  famous  for  the  artists  it  has  entertained, 
and  who  have  left  specimens  of  their  art  in  the  decorations  of  the  house.  It 
is  best  known  as  the  subject  of  W.  L.  Metcalf's  "May  Day,"  now  in  the 
Pittsburgh  Art  Gallery.  To  catalogue  the  artists  who  spend  their  summers 
in  Old  Lyme  would  be  a  long  task.  Many  who  came  for  a  brief  stay  have 
built  substantial  homes  on  attractive  sites.  The  home  of  the  first  minister  of 
Lyme,  Rev.  Moses  Noyes,  is  now  occupied  by  his  descendant,  the  eminent 
Judge  Walter  C.  Noyes. 

North  of  Old  Lyme  is  Lyme,  with  its  growing  artist  colony  at  Hamburg 
Cove.  Lords  Cove,  on  the  east  of  the  main  channel  of  the  Connecticut,  is  a 
famous  hunting  resort  when  rail  and  ducks  are  in  flight. 

The  high  hills  with  the  picturesque  ponds  and  "Eight  Mile  River"  make 
Lyme  a  most  attractive  summer  resort  for  many  cottagers.     In  industry,  the 


TODAY  213 

shad  fisheries  and  agriculture  furnish  the  main  occupations  of  residents,  though 
there  are  a  witch  hazel  factory  and  small  mill. 

If  we  go  east  from  Old  Lyme  along  the  Sound,  we  pass  through  "Black 
Hall,"  settled  by  ^Matthew  Griswold  in  1645  and  retained  in  the  family  for 
six  generations.  The  many  names  of  local  significance  such  as  Hawk's  Nest, 
Giant's  Neck  and  many  others,  indicate  that  the  whole  shore  line  has  become 
one  great  summer  resort.  Just  before  reaching  Bride  Brook,  whose  story 
has  been  told  at  length  in  another  part  of  our  history,  we  pass  the  birthplace 
of  Morrison  Waite,  former  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 

The  town  of  East  Lyme,  with  its  Black  Point  colony  (this  section  was 
once  the  reservation  of  the  Niantic  Indians),  its  large  settlement  at  Crescent 
Beach,  and  its  inns  and  cottages  in  Niantic  proper,  gets  much  of  its  living 
from  summer  visitors,  but  has  also  a  considerable  business  in  fisheries,  and 
there  is  considerable  woolen  manufacture  in  the  northern  part  of  the  town 
near  Flanders  village.  Here  is  to  be  found  a  camping  ground  much  used  by 
the  State  militia.  The  former  toll  bridge,  which  succeeded  the  old  Rope 
Ferry,  has  been  replaced  by  a  handsome  bridge  constructed  recently  by 
the  county. 

Crossing  this  bridge,  we  come  into  Waterford  with  its  famous  Millstone 
granite  quarries.  In  Waterford  was  a  settlement  of  the  Rogerene  Quakers 
whose  adherents  gave  much  trouble  in  New  London  in  early  times.  New 
London,  next  to  the  east,  will  be  described  later. 

After  crossing  the  Thames  on  the  old  railroad  bridge,  given  to  the 
adjacent  towns  by  the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  railroad  and  con- 
verted into  a  highway  bridge,  we  come  to  Groton.  The  industrial  growth  of 
Groton  will  be  later  described ;  its  ancient  history  has  already  been  touched 
upon.    To  the  traveler  the  Groton  of  today  has  many  points  of  interest. 

The  Monument,  not  very  tall  in  itself,  but  situated  at  the  crest  of  Groton 
Heights,  commemorates  the  place  where  Colonel  Ledyard  and  his  comrades 
fell  in  September,  1781.  Near  the  Monument  one  may  see  the  remains  of 
the  old  fort,  and  close  by  the  Bill  Memorial  Library,  one  of  many  beautiful 
buildings  given  for  public  use  in  our  county.  The  Hotel  Griswold  at  Eastern 
Point,  Groton,  is  one  of  the  finest  hotels  on  the  coast,  and  is  one  of  the  many 
improvements  made  by  the  late  Morton  F.  Plant,  whose  estates  in  East 
Lyme  and  Groton  are  model  establishments  for  the  county  at  large.  The 
shipbuilding  village  of  Noank  lies  within  the  town  limits.  The  fine  military 
road  from  Groton  to  Norwich  takes  one  up  the  east  bank  of  the  Thames  by 
the  Naval  Station  (Submarine  Base),  equipped  to  accommodate  several 
thousand  men,  with  splendid  facilities  for  harborage  and  wharfage. 

The  Mystic  river,  formerly  the  boundary  between  Connecticut  and  Massa- 
chusetts, separates  Groton  from  Stonington.  In  the  bay  adjacent  to  Ston- 
ington  is  a  stone  marking  the  coming  together  of  three  States — Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island,  and  New  York.  In  Mystic  village  much  building  has  been 
done  in  times  past.  Here  also  are  made  Lathrop's  engines.  Packer's  Tar  Soap, 
and  various  parts  of  machinery.  Here  also,  as  at  the  mouth  of  the  Con- 
necticut river,  the  artists  have  formed  a  colony.  Stoningfton  is  in  many 
respects  the  Stonington  of  early  days,  but  the  whaler  is  seen  no  more.    Time 


214  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

was  when  its  seafarers  led  the  fleet  in  Antarctic  voyages.  Relics  and  memo- 
rials tell  of  those  days.  The  steamship  line  that  ran  to  New  York  has  been 
abandoned.  Its  chief  industries  today  are  the  manufacture  of  machinery, 
printing  presses,  woolens,  velvets,  and  threads.  Its  population  has  grown 
in  the  last  decade  from  9,154  (1910)  to  10,236  (1920).  Pawcatuck  village,  a 
part  of  Stonington,  is,  economically,  a  part  of  Westerly,  Rhode  Island,  Paw- 
catuck river  being  the  eastern  boundary  of  New  London  county  and  of  the 
State. 

The  most  remarkable  topographical  feature  of  North  Stonington  is  Lan- 
tern Hill,  famous  for  the  view  from  its  summit  and  for  the  silex  that  is 
mined  from  its  sides.  A  new  State  road  now  passes  through  North  Ston- 
ington village,  connecting  Norwich  and  Westerly.  The  Wheeler  School  and 
Library  is  a  fine  structure,  one  of  the  many  memorials  erected  in  the  county 
by  private  generosity.  The  main  industry  is  agriculture.  It  has  the  largest 
area  of  any  town  in  the  county,  with  a  population  of  1,144  (1920).  Its 
prosperous  farms  add  much  to  the  variety  of  scenery  in  the  county. 

To  the  north  from  North  Stonington  lies  Voluntown,  the  least  easily 
accessible  town  of  the  county.  Its  656  inhabitants  have,  on  an  average,  about 
four  hundred  acres  apiece.  Farming  is  the  main  industry,  but  the  manu- 
facture of  cotton  goods  is  carried  on  successfully.  Its  hills  and  ponds  make 
it  a  favorite  resort  for  summer  campers. 

To  the  north  of  Groton  lies  Ledyard,  then  Preston,  then  Griswold,  in 
succession.  Ledyard,  rich  in  history  and  in  hills,  is  crossed  by  the  State 
highway  in  its  north-eastern  corner,  and  has  easy  access  to  the  outside  world 
by  the  railroad  running  up  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Thames  river.  This  agri- 
cultural community  is  cut  up  into  many  hamlets  by  its  rugged  contour.  On 
the  river  front  we  find  Gales  Ferry,  for  a  month  each  year  the  home  of 
Yale  and  Harvard  oarsmen.  Decatur  Hill  is  the  most  conspicuous  landmark 
for  miles  around ;  Allen's  Point,  Stoddard's  Wharf,  Fort  Point,  and  Poque- 
tonuck,  bring  to  mind  the  Indian  aborigines,  the  colonial  settlers,  and  the 
days  of  Stephen  Decatur. 

The  town  of  Preston,  today  a  suburb  of  Norwich,  has  within  itself  Preston 
City,  a  village  that  was  once  the  metropolis  of  its  farming  population.  Its 
name,  like  that  of  Jewett  City  in  Griswold,  reminds  us  that  the  West  is  not 
alone  in  place-names  based  on  hopes  rather  than  accomplishments.  The 
Norwich  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  at  Brewster's  Neck,  marks  the  modern 
progress  of  State  and  county  in  social  amelioration  of  the  helpless. 

Griswold,  once  a  farming  village,  has  become  the  home  of  manufactures, 
which  will  be  described  when  we  consider  the  industries  of  the  county.  West 
of  Griswold  lie  four  children  of  Norwich — Lisbon,  Sprague,  Franklin  and 
Bozrah.  Their  rich  scenery  and  fertile  fields  have  attracted  many  former 
residents  who  have  returned  to  build  up  and  occupy  the  ancestral  farms. 
Their  water  power  has  built  up  thriving  communities  at  Versailles  and 
Occum  (named  for  Samson  Occum  of  Dartmouth  College  fame),  at  Baltic, 
and  at  Fitchville. 

Of  Lebanon,  much  has  already  been  written.     On  the  Central  Vermont 


TODAY 


215 


railroad,  but  somewhat  isolated  from  modern  industrial  growth,  she  retains 
her  earlier  simplicity  and  charm.  One  who  desires  to  revive  his  memories 
of  earlier  days  can  do  no  better  than  to  visit  the  village,  see  the  long  common, 
characteristic  of  early  New  England  settlements,  inspect  the  old  War  Office, 
preserved  as  a  historic  memorial,  survey  the  broad  fields  heavy  with  crops. 
As  the  people  of  the  town  say,  "We  supply  Norwich  with  butter  and  cheese, 
and  the  State  with  Governors,  especially  when  they  want  good  ones."  With 
never  more  than  three  thousand  inhabitants,  it  has  furnished  five  governors 
of  the  State,  who  served  collectively  for  thirty-eight  years. 

The  central  towns  of  the  county,  Norwich  and  New  London,  too,  abound 
in  monuments  of  supreme  interest  to  the  antiquarian.  New  London,  with 
its  splendid  harbor,  its  State  pier  (costing  over  a  million  dollars),  its  railroad 
facilities,  its  natural  beauty,  and  its  successful  industries,  must  become  in 
time  a  metropolis  for  Eastern  Connecticut.  Its  face  is  set  toward  the  future, 
but  its  present  beauty  is  enhanced  by  many  an  historic  memorial. 

The  Shaw  Mansion  of  Acadian  memories  contains  many  relics  of  great 
interest;  the  old  mill  has  already  been  referred  to;  the  Nathan  Hale  school- 
house,  kept  as  a  museum  of  Revolutionary  relics;  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 
Monument  near  the  railroad  station  at  the  foot  of  State  street — these  and 
many  more  reminders  are  to  be  found.  But  even  more  impressive  are  the 
buildings  of  recent  times,  both  public  and  private. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building,  the  Public  Library,  the  Club  buildings,  the 
Plant  building,  the  Munsey  building,  the  splendid  school  buildings,  the  hos- 
pitals, the  stores,  the  parks,  the  remarkable  villas  of  the  summer  colonists, 
combine  to  make  New  London  a  wide-awake,  modern  city,  proud  of  its  past, 
even  prouder  of  its  future.    Of  its  industrial  growth  we  shall  soon  speak. 

As  one  follows  the  road  up  the  west  side  of  the  Thames,  he  sees  the 
buildings  of  Connecticut  College  so  beautifully  situated  on  the  hill ;  he  passes 
through  Waterford  and  Montville,  and  comes  to  Norwich,  the  "Rose  of  New 
England."  This  is  the  route  followed  by  the  old  "Mohegan  Trail,"  with 
slight  modifications.  Uncasville  (in  Montville)  is  well  named  for  the  chief. 
Kitemaug,  Mohegan  Hill,  and  Trading  Cove,  remind  us  that  in  this  region 
the  Mohegans  lingered  longest ;  do.  in  fact,  linger  to  this  day.  Montville  gets 
its  living  today  chiefly  from  manufactures,  though  there  is  some  farming. 

Norwich,  on  its  hills,  is  at  the  head  of  the  Thames,  where  the  Shetucket 
and  Yantic  join.  Rich  in  interesting  memorials,  it  has  many  modern  build- 
ings and  public  works  of  which  to  boast.  In  Norwich  are  a  number  of  parks 
(the  largest,  Mohegan  Park)  aggregating  four  hundred  acres.  Norwich  is 
the  burial  place  of  Uncas,  of  Miantonomoh,  and  of  Captain  John  Mason.  The 
Uncas  monument  was  dedicated  in  1833,  the  Miantonomoh  monument  in  1841, 
the  John  Mason  monument  in  1871. 

The  most  remarkable  of  the  buildings  of  the  last  fifty  years  is  the  Slater 
Memorial  building  given  in  1888  by  Mr.  William  A.  Slater,  in  honor  of  his 
father,  John  F.  Slater,  who  gave  one  million  dollars  for  the  education  of 
freedmen  in  the  South.  This  building,  with  its  museum  and  art  collections, 
belongs  to  the  Norwich  Free  Academy. 

The  development  of  Norwich  within  the  past  fifty  years  has  proceeded 


2i6  XEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

largely  on  industrial  and  commercial  lines.  The  Bank  buildings,  the  Shan- 
non buildings,  the  Otis  Libran,',  the  Town  Hall,  the  Thayer  building,  the 
Backus  Hospital,  one  of  the  best  plants  of  its  size  to  be  found  anywhere,  the 
Buckingham  Alemorial  building  (formerly  the  residence  of  Governor  Buck- 
ingham, and  now  devoted  to  patriotic  purpose,  under  the  control  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  and  the  members  of  the  American  Legion),  are  only  a 
few  of  its  notable  structures.  New  buildings  are  planned  for  the  immediate 
future — a  new  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building  and  a  modem  school  building  of  splendid 
equipment  on  the  West  Side.  The  beautiful  residences,  the  noble  trees,  the 
sightly  streets  and  parks  make  Norwich  well  worthy  of  its  title  of  the  "Rose 
of  New  England." 

New  London  county  history  could  be  fairly  estimated  from  its  names, 
chiefly  Indian,  English,  and  Biblical.  Certainly  in  Norwich  these  names 
are  significant.  Yantic,  Shetucket,  Quinnebaug,  Wauregan,  Mohegan,  Oc- 
cum,  Wequonnoc,  Ponemah,  are  a  few  names  that  will  keep  the  Indian 
aborigines  in  mind  for  centuries  to  come. 

Judge  Samuel  O.  Prentice,  in  his  historical  address  delivered  at  the 
250th  anniversary  celebration  in  1909,  thus  refers  to  the  history  of  Norwich 
for  the  past  fifty  years: 

The  limits  of  the  city  have  been  extended  four  times,  and  those  of  the 
town  once.  In  1874  the  Greeneville  section  was  added  to  the  city,  as  were 
Laurel  Hill  and  Boswellville  in  1875.  In  1901  the  western  portion  of  the 
town  of  Preston  was  taken  into  both  the  town  and  city,  and  in  1907  that 
portion  of  Mohegan  park  which  lay  without  the  city  limits  was  included  in 
them.  In  1870  the  completion  of  the  city's  fine  water  supply  system,  work 
upon  which  had  been  begun  in  1867,  was  fittingly  celebrated,  and  on  July  4th 
President  Grant  honored  the  city  with  a  visit,  and  received  the  enthusiastic 
welcome  of  its  people.  The  same  year  the  first  street  railway  line  was  built. 
It  extended  from  Greeneville  to  Bean  Hill.  It  was  electrified  in  1892,  and 
since  that  time  radiating  lines  have  been  constructed  furnishing  direct  and 
convenient  communication  with  a  large  portion  of  Eastern  Connecticut.  In 
1904  the  city  became  the  owner  of  its  lighting  plant.  The  year  1873  ^^'^^  the 
occupation  of  the  combined  court,  town  and  city  building,  which  during  the 
last  year  or  two  has  been  undergoing  the  process  of  enlargement  to  meet  the 
increasing  demands  upon  it.  The  spring  of  this  same  year  also  witnessed 
the  erection  at  the  head  of  the  Great  Plain  of  the  monument  to  the  memory 
of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Civil  War.  This  theater  was  opened  in 
1890.  The  following  year  the  Otis  Library  was  made  free,  and  in  1892 
enlarged,  and  thus  the  way  prepared  for  the  invaluable  work  it  is  now  doing. 
The  year  1893  was  made  memorable  by  the  completion  of  the  William  W. 
Backus  Hospital,  for  whose  beautiful  location,  admirable  plant  and  ample 
endowment,  Norwich  owes  an  inestimable  debt  of  gratitude  to  Mr.  Backus, 
and  to  that  most  generous  of  her  sons.  William  A.  Slater.  In  1894  the  Masonic 
Temple  was  dedicated,  and  in  1905  the  new  Post  Office  was  opened. 

Fiftj'  years  have  passed.  They  have  been  eventful  ones,  and  have  wit- 
nessed great  changes  in  the  business,  industrial  and  social  life  of  this  country. 
Material  prosperity  has  abounded  ;  the  spheres  of  business  activity  have  won- 
derfully broadened  :  industrial  growth  and  expansion  have  been  marvelous. 
and  populations  have  multiplied  and  centralized  as  never  before  in  our  his- 
tory. Alany  centers  of  population  have  increased  in  numbers  and  been  trans- 
formed in  character  so  as  to  be  scarcelv  recognizable.     Riches  have  been 


TODAY  217 

amazingly  multiplied,  and  have  fallen  to  the  lot  of  very  many  who  had  not 
been  trained  to  their  use.  Extravagance  and  display  have  set  their  alluring 
examples  in  many  quarters,  making  simple  and  unostentatious  living  harder 
and  less  common  than  it  used  to  be.  New  standards  of  various  sorts  have 
come  to  supplant  the  old,  and  former  ideals  have  given  place  to  others.  The 
changes  which  have  taken  place,  however,  have  been  by  no  means  uniform. 
Cities  have  prospered  and  increased,  where  the  country  has  not  to  the  same 
extent,  or  not  at  all.  Some  cities  have  thriven  and  grown  almost  in  spite  of 
themselves,  where  others  have  had  to  plod  their  way  to  larger  things.  Some 
communities  have  found  wealth  dropping  into  their  laps  with  the  minimum 
of  effort,  while  others  have  been  obliged  to  win  their  achievements  by  per- 
sistent endeavor.  Nature's  bounty  has  not  been  the  same  to  all  sections ; 
the  advantages  of  location  have  not  been  uniform  ;  and  the  facilities  of  trans- 
portation, which  have  played  a  large  part  in  industrial  and  business  history, 
have  not  been  shared  in  equal  measure.  Norwich  has  not  found  itself  the 
beneficiary  of  some  great  natural  deposit  of  coal,  iron  ore,  gas,  copper  or 
gold  to  contribute  to  the  expansion  of  its  industries,  the  increase  of  its 
population  and  its  accumulation  of  wealth.  It  has  not  found  it-self  the  center 
of  some  great  industrial  development.  It  has  not  been  favored  by  exceptional 
transportation  facilities.  The  great  lines  of  railway  passed  it  by  on  either 
hand.  It  has  thus  been  left  without  those  aids  to  growth  which  certain  other 
places  have  in  greater  or  less  degree  enjo}ed,  and  it  has  been  compelled  to 
rely  for  the  most  part  upon  the  resources  and  energy  of  its  people  for  what 
it  has  attained.  The  situation,  however,  has  not  been  without  its  compensa- 
tions. Success  won  by  effort  is  blessed  in  the  winning.  It  is  blessed  in  the 
character  it  develops,  and  in  the  type  of  manhood  it  creates.  And  there  has 
been  success.  Of  this  there  are  evidences  on  every  hand,  and  the  fact  that 
the  population  has  practically  doubled  within  the  last  fifty  years  amply 
attests  it.  But  the  conditions  have  not  been  such  as  to  invite  heterogeneous 
population  of  all  sorts  and  kinds  to  the  extent  and  of  the  character  found 
in  some  other  localities.  Sudden  wealth  has  not  come  to  many,  and  to  many 
unfit  to  use  it.  The  new  rich  do  not  infest  its  streets  and  knock  at  the  door 
of  its  society.  What  has  come  has  been  earned,  and  in  the  earning,  the 
stability,  the  solidity  and  the  strength  of  the  old  days  has  not  been  dissipated. 
The  dignity  of  the  simple  life  in  its  best  sense  has  not  been  lost  sight  of,  nor 
the  standards  and  ideals  of  the  former  days  forgotten.  There  has  been 
retained  a  closer  touch  with  the  country  than  is  common  with  cities.  The 
ranks  of  its  trade  and  its  professions  have  been  recruited  very  largely  from 
the  surrounding  farms  and  villages,  and  that  influence  has  been  a  constantly 
powerful  and  wholesome  one.  The  best  blood  of  the  country  round  about, 
and  the  most  of  it  the  blood  of  a  New  England  ancestry,  has  flowed  to  this 
center  to  invigorate  its  life.  As  a  result  of  all  these  influences  and  condi- 
tions, Norwich,  it  seems  to  me,  is  today  more  truly  representative  of  the  old 
New  England  spirit,  and  better  typifies  the  life  and  thought  and  sterling 
character  of  the  fathers,  than  any  other  large  and  growing  center  of  popula- 
tion of  my  acquaintance. 

We  may  sum  up  the  charms  of  our  county  by  saying  that  the  only  excuse 
one  of  our  citizens  finds  for  going  away  in  summer  is  to  avoid  summer 
visitors ;  the  only  excuse  one  can  have  for  moving  away  is  the  anticipated 
pleasure  of  returning  to  dwell  here  after  his  fortune  is  made. 

It  will  be  extremely  difficult  for  the  skeptic  to  find  another  region  of 
like  population  that  has  received  so  many  proofs  of  the  generosity  of  its 
citizens  in  public  bequests,  as  shown  in  charitable  organizations,  schools, 
libraries,  and  monuments. 


2i8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

And,  while  all  that  makes  for  patriotism  and  culture  has  been  retained, 
New  London  county  has  progressed  in  its  business  development  in  an  im- 
pressive way.  A  brief  survey  of  the  main  lines  of  industrial  development  is 
here  presented.  The  banking  system  of  the  county  is  presented  in  a  special 
article. 

Taking  a  large  view  of  the  county,  we  note  its  abundance  of  water 
power.  The  tributaries  of  the  Yantic  and  the  Shetucket,  with  numerous 
smaller  streams  flowing  into  the  Thames,  the  Connecticut,  and  the  Sound, 
are  marked  with  mill  settlements.  The  estuary  of  the  Thames  furnishes 
adequate  transportation  facilities  for  Norwich  and  New  London.  Stonington 
has  a  fine  harbor  of  its  own,  and  the  railroad  makes  the  county  easy  of 
access  for  more  rapid  transportation.  One  characteristic  of  the  industries  of 
the  county  is  their  diversity,  so  that  no  one  industry  determines  the  pros- 
perity of  our  communities. 

Farming  is  carried  on  to  a  considerable  degree  in  every  town  but  New 
London,  where  town  and  city  limits  coincide.  Dairy  farms  and  market 
gardens  have  good  markets  within  ea.sy  reach.  The  farming  classes  are  as  a 
rule  prosperous,  progressive,  and  happy.  With  the  good  roads  and  motor 
vehicles  they  combine  the  advantages  of  country  life  and  urban  resources. 
In  Colchester  and  Montville,  considerable  colonies  of  Jewish  farmers  have 
settled.  Scattered  through  the  county  are  numerous  estates  managed  more 
for  pleasure  than  for  financial  return.  But  the  mass  of  the  farming  popu- 
lation is  composed  of  the  original  independent  stock  that  has  been  the  real 
backbone  of  our  country. 

The  enlightened  policy  of  the  State  makes  it  possible  for  every  child  of 
a  rural  community  to  get  a  high  school  education  at  no  greater  expense 
than  the  city  child  has  to  meet.  Free  public  libraries  abound,  many  of  which 
were  given  by  enlightened  citizens.  Traveling  libraries  are  sent  out  by  the 
State  Librarj'  Committee.  The  telephone,  the  motor  car,  the  morning  news- 
paper, the  church  life,  the  grange  meetings,  the  trolleys,  universal  education, 
and  commerce,  bind  together  the  county  with  a  solidarity  unknown  fifty 
years  ago. 

Far  more  important,  financially,  than  the  farming,  is  the  cotton  industry 
of  the  county,  which,  in  diverse  forms,  is  undoubtedly  the  support  of  more 
people  than  any  other  form  of  manufacture.  Numerous  villages  have  sprung 
up  around  the  factories  in  many  places.  These  villages  are  many  of  them 
model  settlements,  in  which  the  laborer  is  encouraged  to  live  in  comfort, 
amidst  clean  and  sanitary  surroundings,  with  play  grounds,  community  cen- 
ters, social  diversions,  all  of  which  tend  to  increase  his  individual  progress 
and  good  citizenship.  The  chief  centers  of  the  cotton  industry  are  Norwich, 
Jewett  City  (Griswold),  Baltic  (Sprague).  The  woolen  mills  at  Hallville 
(Preston),  Yantic  (Norwich),  and  Thamesville  (Norwich),  do  an  extensive 
business.  The  making  of  bed  quilts  of  many  kinds  is  carried  on  in  the  mills 
of  Palmer  Brothers  at  New  London,  LTncasville  (Montville),  and  Fitchville 
(Norwich).  These  mills  have  a  capacity  of  many  thousand  quilts  a  day.  The 
silk  industry  of  the  Brainerd  &  Armstrong  Company  (New  London),  and  the 


TODAY  219 

J.  B.  Martin  Company  (Norwich),  has  reached  large  proportions.  The  ship- 
building industry  follows  the  shore  from  Stonington  to  New  London,  and 
many  forms  of  machinery,  marine  and  of  other  sorts,  are  manufactured 
throughout  the  county. 

The  paper  industry  has  reached  large  proportions,  one  plant  at  Thames- 
ville  turning  out  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  tons  of  strawboard  daily.  The 
manufacture  of  firearms,  too,  is  a  long-standing  and  prosperous  business.  The 
American  Thermos  Company  has  its  chief  factory  in  Norwich.  To  give  some 
sense  of  the  variety  of  products  of  our  manufacturing  districts  we  submit  an 
outline  b\-  districts. 

New  London  manufactures  ships  and  ship  machinery,  silk  fabrics,  motors, 
brass  tubing,  carpet  lining,  boilers,  printing  presses,  quilts,  paper  boxes,  elec- 
tric specialties,  underwear,  machine  tools,  vises,  poultry  feeders,  heating  ap- 
paratus, mattresses,  hats  and  caps,  clothing  and  many  lesser  products. 

Norwich  manufactures  pistols  and  other  firearms,  cutlery,  plating,  cotton 
and  woolen  goods,  velvet,  silk,  paper,  steam  boilers,  boxboard,  carriages,  pul- 
leys, electric  supplies,  leather  and  belting,  machinery  of  many  sorts.  It  is  the 
seat  of  the  largest  plant  of  the  United  States  Finishing  Company. 

Stonington  manufactures  machinery,  printing  presses,  woolen  and  velvet 

goods,  threads.  Packer's  Tar  Soap,  cotton  goods,  and  goods  of  less  importance. 

Griswold's  Mills  are  mostly  cotton  mills,  but  at  Jewett  City  we  find  the 

Aspinook  Company,  one  of  the  great  bleaching  and  printing  plants  of  the 

country. 

Groton  builds  ships,  and  engines  for  submarines.  Its  main  industry  is 
looking  after  summer  visitors. 

Sprague  makes  cotton  goods,  woolens,  paper,  electricity,  hospital  supplies 
and  novelties. 

Lyme  makes  undertakers'  hardware,  birch  oil  and  witch  hazel  extracts. 
Waterford  makes  paper,  bleaching  and  dyeing  products,  and  has  large  in- 
terests invested  in  quarrying  and  monumental  work.  Montville  makes  quilts, 
cotton  goods,  paper  boxes,  paper,  and  electricity  (Eastern  Connecticut  Power 
Company.)  Preston  with  its  cotton  and  woolen  goods,  Bozrah  with  bed 
quilts  and  shoddy,  Voluntown  with  cotton  manufacture,  Colchester  with  paper 
and  leather  goods.  East  Lyme  with  its  granite  quarries,  menhaden  fisheries, 
woolen  goods,  dyeing  and  bleaching,  are  mainly  agricultural,  as  are  the  other 
towns  of  the  county. 

The  varied  industries  of  the  county  have  brought  in  many  allied  interests, 
banking  and  commercial,  too  numerous  to  mention.  A  list  of  the  main  busi- 
ness firms  of  the  county  is  here  attached.  Many  of  them  are  of  such  propor- 
tions as  to  merit  special  articles,  and  some  are  referred  to  in  other  parts  of 
the  history. 

The  grand  list  of  the  county,  which  does  not  include  non-taxable  prop- 
erty of  religious,  educational  and  charitable  institutions,  and  public  properties 
of  great  value,  is  over  ninety-two  millions,  approximately  six  hundred  dollars 
per  head  for  each  one  of  its  155,311  inhabitants.  Its  tremendous  banking 
capital  will  be  touched  upon  in  another  article.     Among  the  main  manufac- 


220 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


turing  concerns  of  the  county  are  the  following: 


American  Pants  Co.,  Norwich 
American  Strawboard  Co.,  Norwich 
American  Thermos  Bottle  Co.,  Nor- 
wich 
Atlantic    Container    Products    Co., 

Norwich 
Atlantic  Carton  Corp.,  Norwich 
Atlantic  Products  Co.,  Norwich 
Atlas    Radiator   Pedestal    Co.,   Nor- 
wich 
Bard  Union  Co.,  Inc.,  Norwich 
Blue  Star  Overall  Co.,  Norwich 
Brainerd  &  Armstrong  Co.,  Norwich 
Carpenter  Mfg.  Co.,  Norwich. 
Cave  Welding  &  Mfg.  Co.,  Norwich 
Chelsea  File  Works,  Norwich 
City    of    Norwich    Gas    &    Electric 

Dept.,  Norwich 
Climax  Specialty  Co.,  Norwich 
Connecticut  Cord  Iron  Corporation, 

Norwich 
Connecticut  Pants  and  Knee  Pants 

Co.,  Norwich 
Connecticut   Popcorn   Co.,  Norwich 
Coronet  Knitting  Co.,  Norwich 
Crescent  Fire  Arms  Co.,  Norwich 
Crystal     Spring     Bottling     Works, 

Norv/ich 
Davis  Warner  Arms  Corp.,  Norwich 
Eastern  Pants  Co.,  Norwich 
Empire  Skirt  Co.,  Norwich 
Geisthardt's  Steam  Saw  Mill,  Nor- 
wich 
Glen  Woolen  Mills,  Norwich 
Hammond  Process  Co.,  Norwich 
Hartford  Mosaic   Marble   Co.,  Nor- 
wich 
Ideal  Pants  Co.,  Norwich 
Lang  Dye  Works,  Norwich 
Lester  Sz  Wasley  Co.  (Machinery),' 

Norwich 
J.  B.  Martin  Co.  (Velvets  and  Silks), 

Norwich 
New     London-Norwich     Sign     Co., 

Norwich 
New     York     Mineral     Water     Co., 

Norwich 
Norwich  Belt  Mfg.  Co.,  Norwich 
Norwich  Marble  &  Granite  Works, 

Norwich 
Norwich  Overall  &  Skirt  Co.,  Nor- 
wich 
Norwich  Paper  Box  Co.,  Norwich 


Norwich  Wood  Working  Co.,  Nor- 
wich 
Norwich  Woolen  Co.,  Norwich 
Norwich  Woolen  Mills,  Norwich 
Oakdale  Cordage  Co.,  Norwich 
Parker,    Preston    &    Co.     (Paints), 

Norwich 
Pequot  Brass  Foundry,  Norwich 
Pequot  Rug  Factory,  Norwich 
Phoenix  Fire  Extinguisher  Co.,  Nor- 
wich 
H.  B.  Porter  &  Son  Co.  (Woodwork- 
ing),  Norwich 
Reliance  Yarn  Company,  Norwich 
Richmond  Radiator  Company,  Nor- 
wich 
Saxton  Woolen  Corp.,  Norwich 
Shetucket  Harness  Co.,  Norwich 
Thames     Valley     Mills     (Woolen), 

Norwich 
Turner  &  Stanton  Company  (Cord- 
age and  Small  Wares),  Norwich 
Ulmer  Leather  Co.,  Norwich 
United  Metal  Mfg.  Co.,  Norwich 
United    States    Finishing   Co.,    Nor- 
wich 
Vauehan  Foundry  Co.,  Norwich 
Winchester  Woolen  Co.,  Norwich 
John  T.  Young  Briler  Co.,  Norwich 
Adm.'re  Woolen  Mills  Co.,  Norwich 
Glen  Wculen  Mills,  Norwich 
Massassoit  Mfg.  Co.,  Oakdale 
Totokett  Mfg.  Co.,  Versailles  (Lis- 
bon) 
American  Chemical  Co.,   (Old  Mys- 
tic)   Groton 
Mystic  Woolen  Co.,  Groton 
Old  Mvstic  Grist  Mill,  Groton 
Hallville  Mills  (Woolen),  Preston 
American  Thread  Co.,  Stonington 
H.   F.   &  A.  J.   Dawley    (Lumber), 

Preston 
Airlee  Mills,  (Hanover)  Sprague 
American  Velvet  Co.,  Stonington 
Laper  Fire  Alarmi  Co.,  Stonington 
Morrison  Granite  Co.,  Stonington 
Ship    Construction    &   Trading   Co., 

Stonington 
Venture  Rock  Bottlery  Works,  Ston- 
ington 
William  Clark  Mills,  Stonington 
Ponemah     Mills,     (Taftville)     Nor- 
wich 


TODAY 


221 


Norwich  Woolen  Mills,  Norwich 
Federal    Paper    Board    Co.,     (Ver- 
sailles)   Lisbon 
Hygienic  Paper  Co.,  Lisbon 
Brigg's  Mfg.  Co.   (Cotton),  Volun- 

town 
Voluntown  Grist  Mi'.I,  Voluntown 
Booth  Bros.  &  Hunicane  Isle  Gran- 
ite Co.,  Waterford 
Jordan  Mill,  Wat^^rford 
Millstone  Granite  Quarries,  Water- 
ford 
Norwich  &  Westerly  Traction  Co., 

Westerly 
Holmes   Motor  Co.,   (New   Mystic) 

Groton 
Yantic  Mills  (Cotton),  Norwich 
Baltic  Mills  (Cotton),  Sprague 
Shetucket  Worsted    Mills,    (Baltic) 

Sprague 
Federal  Felling  Co.,   (Clarke  Falls) 

Nortli  Stonington 
Columbia  Kid  Hair  Curler  Mfg.  Co., 

Colchester 
Hills   Turning    &    Saw    Mill,    East 

Lyme 
Menhaden   Oil   &  Guano  Co.,   East 

Lyme 
Monumental  Works,  East  Lyme 
American     Thread     Co.,     (Glasgo) 

Griswold 
Mutual  Hair  Goods  Co.,  Groton 
Electric  Boat  Co.,  Groton 
General  Ordnance  Co.,  Groton 
Groton  Iron  Works,  Groton 
Groton  Marine  Railways,  Groton 
Lake  Torpedo  Boat  Company,  Groton 
New  London  Ship  Engine  Co.,  Groton 
Shay  Fertilizer  Co.,  Groton 
Vanadium  Metal  Co.,  Groton 
Glengarry  Mills,  (Hanover)  Sprague 
Smith's  Mills,  Sprague 
Ashland  Cotton   Co.,   (Jewett  City) 

Griswold 
Aspinook  Co.,    (Jewett  City)    Gris- 
wold 
Blissville  Mills,  Griswold 
Jewett    City    Textile    Novelty    Co., 

(Jewett  City)   Griswold 
Slater  Mills,  (Jewett  City)  Griswold 
Ingalls  Co.  (Lumber),  Norwich 
Royal  Silver  Co.,  Lyme 
Chagnon  Huggard  Co.,  Montville 
Johnson  &  Co.,  Montville 


Palmer  Bros.  (Quilts),  Montville 
Pequot   Mills,  Montville 
Eastern  Conn.  Power  Co.,  Montville 
Robertson  Co.,  Montville 
Standard  Package  Co.,  Montville 
Thames  River  Specialties  Co.,  Mont- 
ville 
Uncasville  Mfg.  Co.,  Montville 
Allen  Spool  &  Wood  Turning  Co., 

Stonington 
Climax  Tube  Co.,  Stonington 
Mystic    Gas   &    Electric    Co.,    Ston- 
ington 
Mystic  Lace  Mills  Co.,  Stonington 
Mystic   Marine  Railway   Co.,   Ston- 
ington 
Mystic  Woolen  Co.,  Groton 
Packer  Mfg.  Co.   (Tar  Soap),  Ston- 
ington 
Robinson  Silk  Co.,  Stonington 
Rossie  Velvet  Co.,  Stonington 
Standard  Machine  Co.,  Stonington 
Sutton's  Spar  Yard,  Stonington 
Anchor  Knitting  Mills,  New  London 
Babcock    Printing   Press    Mfg.    Co., 

New  London 
Auto   Radiator   &   Lamp   Co.,   New 

London 
Bingham  Paper  Box  Co.,  New  Lon- 
don 
Brainerd  &  Armstrong  (Silks),  New 

London 
Casey  Granite  Works,  New  London 
Cedar     Grove     Monumental     Works, 

New  London 
Conn.  Iron  &  Metal  Co.,  New  Lon- 
don 
Conn.  Power  Co.,  New  London 
Conn.  Turbine  Mfg.  Co.,  New  Lon- 
don 
Hawthorne  Sash  &  Door  Co.,  New 

London 
Holland  Skirts  Mfg.  Co.,  New  Lon- 
don 
Lenox  Shirt  Factory,  New  London 
Long  Island  &  Fisher's  Island  Brick 

Co.,  New  London 
Mohegan  Cotton  Alills,  New  London 
New    England    Carpet    Lining   Co., 

New  London 
New  England  Collapsible  Tube  Co., 

New   London 
N.  E.  Dress  Mfg.  Co.,  New  London 
N.  E.  Pants  Co.,  New  London 


222  NEW  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

New    London    Boiler   Works,    New  Standard  Ice  Cream  Cone  Co.,  New 

London  London 

New    London     Granite    &    Marble  Submarine  Boat  Co.,  New  London 

Works.  New  London  Thames    River    Lumber    Co.,    New 
New    London    Marine    Iron    Works  London 

Co.,  New  London  Thames    Sheet   Metal  Works,   New 
New    London    Vise    Works,    New  London 

London  Thames  Tow  Boat  Co.,  New  London 

Automatic  Feeder  Co.,  New  London  DeWhiton  Machine  Co.,  New  Lon- 
Putnam    Furniture    Mfg.    Co.,    New  don 

London  Wilson    Planing    &    Molding    Mill, 
Reliable  Skirt  Mfg.  Co.,  New  Lon-  New  London 

don  General    Machine    &    Electric    Co., 
ShefHeld  Dentifrice  Co.,  New  Lon-  (Noank)   Groton 

don  Groton  Iron  Works  (Noank  Branch) 
Standard  Brass  &  Copper  Tube  Co., 

New  London 

The  reader  may  learn  from  the  preceding  list,  incomplete  as  it  is,  that  a 
citizen  of  New  London  countj'  has  little  need  to  go  elsewhere  for  food,  cloth- 
ing, or  weapons.  From  cutlery  to  tombstones,  the  county  is  well-nigh  self- 
sufficient.  .\nd  the  manufacturing  establishments,  as  a  rule,  are  placed  so 
as  to  interfere  very  little  with  the  beauty  of  residential  sections.  Even  in 
mill  villages,  the  prospect  pleases.  Many  a  worker  is  renting  for  two  or 
three  dollars  a  week  a  home  that  could  cost  four  times  as  much  in  the  city. 
Home  gardens  are  allotted  to  all  who  seek  them.  Free  hospital  service,  a 
complete  system  of  health  inspection  by  competent  nurses,  good  schools, 
ample  play  grounds,  all  tend  to  protect  young  and  old.  Most  of  these 
improvements  have  come  in  the  last  three  decades. 

In  public  affairs  the  county  has  continued  to  do  its  part  for  State  and 
country.  Out  of  twelve  United  States  Senators  who  have  served  since  i860, 
New  London  county  has  furnished  three.  Its  list  of  Representatives  has 
been  an  honorable  one.  It  has  furnished  but  one  Governor  since  1880,  Hon. 
Thomas  B.  Waller,  of  New  London.  One  Lieutenant-Governor,  two  Secre- 
taries of  State,  two  State  Treasurers,  three  Speakers  of  the  House,  have  come 
in  the  last  fifty  years  from  this  county.  In  the  General  Assembly  New 
London  county  has  three  Senators  and  thirty  Representatives. 

In  this  county  are  four  boroughs — Stonington,  1801 ;  Colchester,  1846; 
Jewett  City,  1895;  and  Groton,  1903.  Its  population  has  increased  over  twenty 
per  cent,  in  the  last  twenty  years.  Of  the  total  population,  approximately 
sixty  per  cent,  is  either  foreign  born  or  of  foreign  parentage.  The  process 
of  Americanization  is  going  on  apace,  largelv  through  the  influence  of  the 
public  schools.  In  many  cases  these  new-comers  have  a  lively  sense  of  the 
blessings  of  liberty.  Thev  are  thrifty  and  industrious.  They  are  acquiring 
property  and  therefore  feel  that  they  have  a  stake  in  the  welfare  of  the 
community.  Bolshevism  does  not  thrive  in  New  London  county.  In  every 
Libertj'  Loan  drive  the  county  went  far  over  its  quota.  For  the  Red  Cross, 
as  for  distinctly  local  improvements,  its  people  are  generous  contributors. 

The  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  New  London  was  celebrated 


TODAY  223 

on  May  6tli,  1896,  when  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument  was  dedicated. 
Miss  Charlotte  Molyneux  Holloway  prepared  the  Historical  Sketch  of  New 
London,  which,  with  many  splendid  illustrations,  was  published  by  Messrs. 
G.  C.  Morgan,  R.  I.  Waller  and  H.  H.  Morgan.  In  it  may  be  found  a  detailed 
account  of  many  of  the  gifts  of  generous  citizens  to  the  community.  The 
programme  of  the  celebration  reads  as  follows: 

May  5th,  1896,  evening  meeting  at  the  Armory,  of  3rd  Regiment,  Connecticut 

National  Guard. 
Concert,  7.30  to  8  p.  m.,  3rd  Regiment  Band. 
Meeting  called  to  order  by  His  Honor  James  P.  Johnston,  Mayor  of  New 

London. 
Prayer,  by  Rev.  John  R.  Stubbert,  pastor  of  Huntington  Street  Baptist  Church. 
Music,  "Star  Spangled  Banner,"  by  a  choir  of  four  hundred  school  girls. 
Address,  "The  Founding  of  the  Town,"  by  WaUer  Learned. 
Hymn,  "Speed  Our  Republic,"  chorus. 
Poem,  "New  London,"  George  Parsons  Lathrop,  LL.D. 
Speeches  by  Hon.  Charles  A.  Russell,  Member  of  Congress ;  Hon.  Orville  H. 

Piatt,  Senator;  Hon.  Thomas  Weller,  ex-Governor. 
Music,  "America." 

May  6th,  10  a.  m. — Laying  of  corner  stone  of  a  monument  to  John  Winthrop 
the  Younger,  in  Bulkeley  Square. 

Introduction  by  Mr.  Alfred  H.  Chappell,  president  Board  of  Trade. 

Prayer,  Rev.  James  Bexler,  Second  Congregational  Church. 

Address,  "The  Founder  of  the  Town,"  Rev.  S.  Leroy  Blake,  D.D.,  First 
Church  of  Christ. 

Music,  "Our  Flag  is  There." 

Laying  of  corner  store.  Grand  Master  James  H.  Welsh,  Grand  Lodge  of 
Connecticut  Free  and  Accepted  Masons. 

Music,  "America." 

Benediction,  Rev.  Alfred  P.  Grint,  St.  James  Episcopal  Church. 

II  a.  m. — Dedication  of  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument,  on  the  Parade,  pre- 
sented by  Sebastian  D.  Lawrence,  Esq. 

Introduction,  Mr.  Alfred  H.  Chappell. 

Presentation  of  Monument  by  the  Donor. 

Acceptance  by  the  Mayor,  Hon.  James  P.  Johnston. 

Music,  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic." 

Address  for  the  Army,  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  Senator. 

Address  for  the  Navy,  Rev.  George  W.  Smith,  president  of  Trinity  College, 
Hartford. 

Music. 

2  p.  m.,  Grand  Military  and  Civic  Procession. 

8  p.  m.,  Grand  display  of  fireworks. 

At  this  time  was  also  published  "A  Brief  History  of  New  London,"  by 
Carl  J.  Viets,  publisher. 


224  >^'E\V  LONDON  COUNTY 

In  1909  was  celebrated  the  250th  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Norwich. 
A  complete  account  of  this  celebration,  edited  by  Mr.  William  C.  Oilman, 
was  published  in  1912.  Its  illuminating  introduction  of  over  fifty  pages  gives 
a  full  and  inspiring  statement  of  the  growth  of  the  town  from  1859  (date 
of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary)  to  1909.  Wit,  charm  of  style,  and  wis- 
dom, are  combined  in  this  account  of  the  "Rose  of  Nev^f  England."  The 
celebration  lasted  three  days ;  the  official  programme  covers  four  full  pages. 
The  table  of  contents  of  the  volume  gives  a  skeleton  only  of  a  remarkable 
three-day  "feast  of  reason  and  flow  of  soul." 

Foreword. 

Officers  and  Executive  Committee. 

Introduction,  Part  I. 

Introduction,  Part  II ;  Norwich,  1859-1909. 

The  Quarter-Millennial  Celebration. 

First  Day  Services  at  Up-Town. 

Burying  Ground. 

Second  Day — Reception  of  President  Taft. 

Historical  Pageant. 

The  Procession. 

President  Taft's  Address  on  Chelsea  Parade. 

Third  Day — Presentation  of  Memorial  Fountain. 

Literary  Exercises  at  Broadway  Theater. 

Financial  Statement. 

Official  Programme. 

Military  and  Civic  Parade. 

Loan  Exhibit  at  Converse  Art  Gallery. 

Sermons. 

Letters  from  Absentees. 

Notes  on  Persons  and  Places. 

Statistics  and  outlines,  buildings  and  streets,  are  the  superficial  evidences 
of  the  prosperit}-  of  the  county.  The  real  countj'  beneath  all  these  outward 
forms  may  be  seen  only  in  the  lives  of  its  people.  The  moral  tone  of  the 
citizens,  their  customs,  their  activities  in  a  thousand  ways,  have  to  be  seen 
to  be  appreciated. 

New  London  county  needs  a  "Joe"  Lincoln  to  set  forth  the  real  nature 
of  its  citizens.  Only  those  who  rise  to  fame  are  recorded  in  the  pages  of 
history,  but  the  observant  citizen  of  any  of  our  towns  sees  going  on  every  daj' 
before  him  a  process  of  growth  and  struggle  worthy  to  be  described  by  a 
master  hand. 

Difficulties  are  being  surmounted,  characters  are  being  formed,  generous 
deeds  are  being  performed  today,  as  in  times  past.  Undoubtedly  our  com- 
munities have  their  peculiar  traits,  as  do  individuals.  The  heritage  of  the 
past  and  the  present  environments  combine  to  give  a  special  tone  to  the  life 
of  each  community.  New  England  reticence,  Connecticut  individualism,  and 
local  needs,  have  given  to  our  county  a  character  of  its  own.  It  is  this 
intangible  part  of  our  assets  that  constitute  our  best  possession.    Mr.  William 


TODAY  225 

C.  Oilman,  editor  of  the  "Norwich  Quarter  Millennium,"  quotes  Judge  Na- 
thaniel Shopman's  words  about  Norwich,  "It  is  inexpedient  for  us  to  do  any- 
thing more  than  simply  to  say  we  loved  the  town  when  we  were  boys,  we  love 
it  now  when  we  are  men,  and  we  want  to  say  so." 

The  same  words  and  sentiments  about  every  town  in  the  county  would 
show  the  charm  that  is  felt  by  former  residents.  Our  cities  and  towns  have 
not  been  over-standardized.  The  same  sort  of  individuality  that  makes 
people  interesting,  still  imparts  to  many  of  our  communities  a  local  color 
easily  perceived  by  the  visitor.  One  hears  in  our  towns  but  rarely  the  loud 
protestations  of  the  western  "booster,"  but  finds  a  surprising  number  of  men 
who,  after  great  success  in  the  competition  of  the  large  cities,  are  content  to 
settle  in  the  home  of  their  boyhood  days.  They  feel  much  like  the  Cape  Cod 
captain  who  came  back  from  voyaging  the  world  over  to  settle  near  the  tip 
of  the  Cape.  Said  he,  "I've  been  'round  the  world  eight  times.  I've  seen 
'most  every  country.  But,  I'm  satisfied  right  here,  and  I  don't  care  if  I 
never  go  west  of  Barnstable  again  in  my  life." 


N.L.— 1-15 


CHAPTER  IX  I 

MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION 

The  Various  Cities  and  Towns  —  Financial  Condition  of  County  —  Officiary  of  New 
London  and  Norwich — Important  Events. 

At  various  times  local  business  organizations  have  issued  pamphlets 
descriptive  of  the  commercial  opportunities  afforded  by  the  county.  We 
quote  freely  from  one  such  prospectus  printed  seven  years  ago: 

On  each  side  of  the  beautiful  Thames  river  are  twelve  miles  of  available 
territory,  suitable  for  factory  sites.  On  the  west  side  lie  the  tracks  of  the 
Central  Vermont  railway,  on  the  east  those  of  the  N.  Y.,  N.  H.  &  H.  railroad, 
and  sufficient  depth  of  water  for  wharfage  purposes  on  any  of  its  factory 
sites.  There  is  not  a  sheet  of  inland  water  in  the  United  States  that  gets  the 
free  advertising  that  comes  to  the  Thames  river  every  year  when  the  great 
college  regatta  focuses  the  eyes  of  the  whole  civilized  world  and  draws 
thousands  of  the  youngest,  fairest  and  best  of  humanity  to  this  same  fourteen 
miles  of  the  Rose  of  New  England.  This  of  itself  is  an  advertising  asset 
of  no  small  proportion. 

We  quote  right  here  the  reason  the  president  of  one  of  our  newest  and 
largest  industries  gave  for  moving  his  plant  from  New  York  to  Norwich-on- 
the-Thames:  "We  consider  the  property  on  both  sides  of  the  Thames  river 
between  Norwich  and  New  London  superior  to  any  other  property  within 
the  zone  desired,  and,  for  that  matter,  within  the  United  States,  for  the  fol- 
lowing reasons :  First — You  have  more  than  thirty-eight  million  people 
within  twelve  hours'  ride.  Second — You  have  144  cities  of  10,000  people  and 
over  within  the  twelve  hours'  radius.  Third — You  have  parts  of  sixteen 
states  within  twelve  hours  by  rail  and  all  of  Eastern  Canada  and  direct  trunk 
line  connections  therewith.  You  have  the  cheapest  hydro-electric  power  in 
all  New  England,  which  with  your  gas  works  and  water  plant  (two  large 
reservoirs)  are  owned  and  operated  by  your  municipality.  You  have  low  cost 
of  living,  abundant  labor,  little,  if  any,  labor  troubles,  favorable  freight  rates, 
both  rail  and  water,  splendid  climate,  and  are  surrounded  by  lands  which,  if 
properly  cultivated,  are  rich  in  production.  These  are  the  advantages  for 
manufacturing  in  Norwich  that  have  convinced  our  board  of  directors  that 
our  removal  from  New  York  to  your  city  is  a  move  in  the  right  direction  and 
may  be  of  interest  to  those  who  read  these  facts,  as  they  are  the  reasons  for 
inducing  other  manufacturing  industries  to  locate  here.  Our  company  by 
its  removal  from  Manhattan  Island  to  your  city  has  estimated  that  it  will 
effect  annual  economies  aggregating  $44,000." 

Norwich,  agriculturally,  is  not  unlike  the  towns  that  bound  it  on  the  north, 
east,  south  and  west,  hence  a  general  description  will  satisfy  the  reader  who 
may  take  a  deep  interest  in  rural  life.  Opportunity  awaits  the  man  who 
engages  in  agricultural  pursuits  in  any  of  the  towns  surrounding  Norwich. 
Close  proximity  to  a  ready  market,  easy  access  to  trolley  lines,  best  of  State 
and  macadam  highways,  rural  telephone  service,  rural  free  delivery  and  par- 
cel post,  all  go  to  make  farm  life  hereabouts  that  of  a  country  gentleman. 
Dairying  and  market  gardening  constitute  today  the  real  business  being 
developed  and  nurtured  on  most  of  the  farms  in  Eastern  Connecticut.  Stock 
raising  and  the  fattening  of  beef  for  market,  we  believe,  is  one  of  the  natural 


228  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

outcomes  of  the  high  cost  of  living,  and  he  who  early  gets  the  habit  will  reap 
tlie  greatest  benefit.  Salem,  Bozrah,  Lebanon  and  Franklin,  towns  to  the 
west  and  north  of  Norwich,  are  devoted  wholly  to  agricultural  pursuits,  the 
town  of  Lebanon  perhaps  being  the  more  noted  of  the  four  for  its  fertile 
farms  and  their  prosperous  owners  and  w-ell-kept  buildings.  Lebanon  Green, 
a  street  three  miles  long,  is  one  of  the  historic  points  of  interest  of  the  town, 
and  was  the  home  of  Jonathan  Trumbull. 

Preston,  east  and  south  of  Norwich,  has  a  small  factory  village  known 
as  Hallville.  A  good  sized  woolen  mill  is  engaged  in  manufacturing  high 
grade  woolen  cloth  for  men's  suitings,  etc.  The  property  is  known  as  the 
Hall  Brothers'  Woolen  Mill.  The  land  is  fertile  and  many  good  farms  are 
to  be  found  in  Preston. 

Sprague,  eight  miles  north  of  Norwich,  because  of  its  being  intersected 
by  the  Shetucket  and  Little  rivers,  has  three  thriving  mill  villages  within  its 
borders.  Baltic,  the  largest,  is  a  busy  village  of  some  3,500  inhabitants  and 
is  the  seat  of  town  government.  Located  here  is  the  model  plant  of  the  Baltic 
Mills  Company,  employing  about  1,500  hands,  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  a  fine  grade  of  cotton  goods.  There  are  also  mills  manufacturing  woolen 
goods.  Abundant  power  is  furnished  by  the  damming  of  the  Shetucket  river. 
Hanover,  in  the  town  of  Sprague,  has  as  its  chief  industry  the  Airlie  Mills, 
employing  100  hands  engaged  in  making  ladies'  woolen  dress  goods.  The 
factory  is  located  on  the  Little  river,  a  tributary  of  the  Shetucket,  joining  the 
latter  at  Versailles,  where  the  third  village  has  a  factory  engaged  in  making 
hospital  supplies,  employing  100  hands.  Located  on  the  eastern  border  of 
the  town  is  the  paper  mill  known  as  the  Eastern  Straw  Board  Company, 
making  a  coarse  roofing  and  building  paper.  Power  is  taken  from  the 
Little  river. 

Lisbon  is  a  small  town  adjacent  to  Sprague,  and  lies  northeast  of  Nor- 
wich. It  has  the  distinction  of  not  having  a  store,  post  office  or  factory  within 
its  limits.  Agriculture  is  the  principal  occupation,  and  like  many  other  towns 
vn  Eastern  Connecticut,  a  large  revenue  is  derived  from  summer  boarders, 
who  come  here  ever}'  year  in  goodly  numbers. 

Bozrah  possesses  many  good  farms,  a  charming  recreation  resort  and 
some  industries.  Gardner's  Lake,  a  pure  body  of  crystal  water  three  and  one- 
half  miles  in  length,  one  and  one-quarter  miles  in  width  and  sixty  feet  in 
depth,  affords  excellent  fishing  and  boating,  while  its  thickly  wooded  and 
grassy  slopes  offer  many  opportunities  for  summer  homes.  The  largest  indus- 
try in  the  town  is  the  quilt  mill  of  Palmer  Bros,  at  Fitchville,  a  quaint  and 
picturesque  village,  five  miles  from  Norwich,  on  the  Yantic  river. 

Griswold  lies  east  of  Lisbon  and  eight  miles  from  Norwich.  Jewett  City, 
the  onh'  village  of  any  size  in  the  town,  has  a  borough  form  of  government. 
Located  here  are  the  original  Slater  Cotton  Mills,  in  operation  continuously 
since  late  in  the  eighteenth  centurj*.  The  Aspinook  Bleacher^-,  employing 
many  hundred  people ;  the  Jewett  City  Textile  Novelty  Company,  engaged  in 
finishing  cotton  goods,  furnish  emploj'ment  to  a  large  number  of  operatives. 
The  Ashland  Cotton  Company,  manufacturers  of  plain  cotton  cloths.  The 
American  Thread  Company,  making  all  kinds  of  thread,  have  a  modern  fac- 


MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION  229 

tor}-  located  at  Glasgo,  on  the  western  border  of  the  town.  It  is  the  only- 
factory  in  the  village  and  employs  150  hands. 

Voluntown  is  one  of  the  most  easterly  towns  of  Connecticut,  on  the 
Rhode  Island  line.  The  only  village  in  the  town  bears  the  same  name.  Lo- 
cated here  are  the  cotton  mills  of  the  Briggs  Manufacturing  Company,  some 
three  in  number,  furnishing  the  principal  means  of  support  of  residents. 
Voluntown  is  twelve  miles  from  Norwich  and  seven  miles  from  the  nearest 
railroad,  all  freight  being  delivered  at  Jewett  City,  on  the  Norwich  &  Worces- 
ter division  of  the  N.  Y.,  N.  H.  &  H.  railroad.  Agriculturally,  the  town  is 
not  very  progressive ;  large  farms  can  be  purchased  for  a  few  hundred  dollars. 

The  great  dairy  prospects  of  this  section  of  New  England  are  most 
notable.  Milk  is  being  shipped  to  the  ready  markets  of  Boston  and  Providemce 
in  large  quantities  from  nearly  every  farm,  as  all  are  within  easy  access  to  the 
railroad.  The  advent  of  the  suburban  trolley  system  has  already  doubled  the 
amount  of  shipments.  Milk  cars  are  attached  to  all  early  trains  and  it  is  a 
most  interesting  sight  to  see  from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  farmers,  repre- 
senting as  many  farms,  with  their  teams  in  the  early  morning  delivering 
their  cans  of  milk  to  the  many  receiving  stations  along  the  lines,  leaving  full 
cans  and  taking  back  empty  ones  for  the  next  day.  And  don't  think  for  a 
moment  that  the  farmer  is  not  posted  on  the  news  of  the  day.  That  theory 
has  long  since  been  exploded.  With  the  four  bright  newspapers  published  in 
Norwich,  two  daily  and  two  weekly,  the  farmer  knows  every  day  all  that  has 
happened  throughout  the  world  during  the  past  twenty-four  hours. 

Every  town  has  its  Grange,  giving  ample  opportunity  for  social  inter- 
course for  the  whole  family,  and  a  rare  chance  to  gather  knowledge.  Nor- 
wich Grange  is  one  of  the  most  progressive  of  the  State,  having  a  member- 
ship of  125  active  men  and  women,  and  during  the  winter  lectures  are  given 
by  professors  from  the  State  Agricultural  College  that  prove  not  only  enter- 
taming  but  highly  instructive  as  well.  We  cannot  paint  the  picture  of  the 
future  farm  life  and  its  prospects,  both  in  the  town  of  Norwich  and  its 
environment,  in  too  vivid  colors.  There  is  no  better  market  garden  outlet  in 
any  rural  section  of  the  United  States  than  right  here  in  any  of  the  towns 
briefly  referred  to,  while  orchards  consisting  of  apple,  peach  and  pear  trees 
are  beginning  to  interest  the  thrifty  husbandman  of  the  soil. 

The  greater  the  industrial  development  of  a  State,  correspondingly 
greater  and  more  valuable  must  become  its  agricultural  output  and  land 
values,  inseparable  and  useless  each  without  the  other. 

Come  to  Norwich,  Connecticut,  the  Rose  of  New  England,  an  Eastern 
city  with  Western  progressiveness,  "The  Coming  City  of  the  East." 

New  London's  greatest  asset  is  her  harbor.    Here  is  the  natural  entrance 

to  the  great  coming  of  the  North  and  West,  but  not  only  this:  The  increasing 
congestion  of  shipping  trade  at  New  York  and  the  correspondingly  increasing 
difficulty  and  expense  of  securing  dockage  at  that  port  for  new  lines  of  steam- 
ers are  as  constantly  attracting  attention  to  the  opportunities  afforded  at 
New  London;  when  the  docks  are  completed  (they  have  since  been  com- 
pleted), a  vessel  destined  for  New  York  can  discharge  her  passengers  and 


230  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

freight  at  New  London  and  deliver  them  in  New  York  at  greater  economy 
of  time  and  money  than  by  proceeding  along  the  slower  channel  to  New  York. 
The  development  of  this  million-dollar  enterprise  will  inevitably  greatly  stimu- 
late local  business  and  opportunity,  not  alone  for  a  day  but  for  years  to  come. 
History  and  observation  abundantly  illustrate  the  natural  industrial  and  com- 
mercial development  of  great  cities,  with  their  development  as  great  ports. 

Second  to  her  harbor  as  an  asset  is  New  London's  seashore.  By  this  is 
meant  not  only  her  Ocean  Beach  and  the  Pequot  estates  and  properties  bor- 
dering the  harbor,  including  the  unsurpassed  hotel  site  formerly  occupied  by 
the  old  Pequot  House  which  was  burned  some  years  ago,  but  the  entire  ter- 
ritory between  the  Connecticut  river  and  the  Rhode  Island  State  line  and 
extending  up  the  Thames  river  toward  Norwich. 

Thousands  are  added  to  the  summer  population  of  this  section  during 
"the  season,"  which,  unfortunately,  for  visitors  often  must  end  when  the 
schools  for  their  children  reopen  at  home.  The  proximity  of  river,  harbor 
and  sound  makes  it  a  favorite  resort  for  yachtsmen  and  the  owners  of  motor 
craft  without  lessening  in  any  degree  the  usual  attractions  of  the  open 
country.  Detailed  notices  of  Crescent  Beach,  Niantic,  Groton,  Mystic  and 
Stonington  are  included  later  in  this  sketch. 

First — To  the  large  manufacturer:  In  these  days  of  keen  competition, 
every  avoidable  expense  possible  must  be  eliminated  by  the  manufacturer; 
among  these  expenses  are  avoidable  charges  for  transporting  both  raw 
material  and  finished  product.  Hence,  accessibility  to  supplies  and  to  mar- 
kets are  of  vital  importance  in  selecting  a  location.  Being  a  junction  point 
of  the  New  Haven  railway  system,  and  also  that  of  the  Grand  Trunk  of 
Canada,  it  is  evident  that  New  London's  railway  facilities  cannot  be  sur- 
passed, and  in  addition  it  has  opportunities  for  securing  the  waterway  com- 
petition of  the  whole  world ;  not  only  this,  but  in  some  cases  raw  material 
may  be  unloaded  directly  from  the  vessel  to  the  factory  on  one  side  and  the 
finished  product  reshipped  by  water,  or  it  may  be  loaded  onto  cars  on  the 
other  side  of  the  factory. 

Second — To  the  employee  and  the  smaller  manufacturer:  It  should  be 
remembered  that  the  natural  attractions  of  this  region  appeal  with  as  much 
force  to  the  intelligent,  desirable  employee  as  to  the  m.ore  exclusive,  so-called, 
residential  classes;  as  freely  as  their  children,  may  his  little  ones  enjoy  the 
delights  of  the  sea  and  the  sands  at  Ocean  Beach. 

Another  thing  to  remember  is  that  self-respecting,  contented,  cooperating 
employees  are  essential  to  the  manufacturer  and  the  city's  welfare.  Satisfy- 
ing suroundings  secure  satisfied  citizens.  New  London's  policy  is  to  provide 
adequately  for  them ;  not  how  great  alone,  but  how  well  shall  New  London 
grow,  is  the  principle  of  many  citizens ;  to  make  it  a  good  city  for  all  of  us 
to  live  in.  At  the  present  time  it  is  doubtful  if  any  city  in  New  England  has 
a  greater  percentage  of  good  streets  and  sidewalks  or  of  thrifty  public  shade 
trees. 

Until  recently  the  above  considerations  had  little  weight  in  determining 
the  policy  or  location  of  manufacturing  plants ;  today,  however,  in  many 
progressive  communities  they  have  much  weight  in  influencing  city  planning 


MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION  231 

for  the  future.  It  is  believed  that  with  the  smaller  manufacturer,  particularly- 
one  who  desired  to  assimilate  with  the  best  life  of  his  new  city,  they  should 
receive  very  favorable  consideration.  Such  men  with  healthy  enterprises 
will  be  most  heartily  welcomed  to  New  London.  Moderate  rates  for  power 
and  as  favorable  conditions  as  possible  will  be  provided.  Bear  in  mind  the 
fact  that  goods  shipped  in  the  afternoon  or  evening,  even  heavy  freight  by 
boat,  from  New  London,  can  be  delivered  in  New  York  the  following  morn- 
ing; equally  prompt  shipments  are  received  from  New  York. 

An  opportunity  to  personally  discuss  local  conditions  and  possibilities  is 
solicited.  A  number  of  small  water  power  privileges,  one  of  considerable 
size  and  well  equipped,  are  available  in  this  vicinity. 

Groton,  just  opposite  the  city  of  New  London,  is  one  of  the  very  few 
localities  where  valuable  water  transportation  rights  remain  unabsorbed  by 
railroad  or  other  powerful  corporations.  Definite  information  regarding 
specific  properties  on  Groton  Bank  or  properties  bordering  the  railroad  will 
be  supplied  to  interested  parties  on  application  to  the  Groton  Board  of  Trade. 
The  New  Haven  Railroad  Company  controls  valuable  properties  both  below 
and  above  the  bridge.  Manufacturers  or  others  desiring  to  avail  themselves 
of  these  privileges  will  receive  very  favorable  consideration  from  the  company. 

Mystic,  a  village  in  both  the  townships  of  Groton  and  Stonington,  nat- 
urally blends  the  one  with  the  other,  thus  completing  the  most  splendid  bit 
of  shore  line  east  of  Thames  river.  Whether  one  seeks  location  for  a  factory, 
a  recreation  spot  for  summer,  or  a  home  site.  Mystic  offers  peculiar  advan- 
tages. Industries  of  world-wide  reputation  are  already  here ;  there  is  room 
for  more.  Artists  of  repute  find  in  Mystic  and  environment  permanent  charm 
and  inspiration  for  their  talent;  their  recommendation  brings  others  who 
become  enthusiasts.  City-jaded  folk  find  in  Mystic's  beauty,  quiet  and  sim- 
plicity, a  panacea  for  tired  bodies,  weary  minds.  The  sea,  the  country,  the 
hills,  the  lowlands — all  nature  at  her  best  is  Mystic's  glorious  asset  to  oflter 
the  vacationist.  Would  you  build  yourself  a  home  "far  from  the  madding 
crowd,"  but  within  easy  access,  overlooking  the  sun-kissed  waters  of  the 
Sound,  or  up  the  Mystic  Valley?  Would  you  buy  some  dear  old  farmhouse 
dating  back  to  Colonial  days,  with  the  possibilities  it  would  be  a  joy  to 
develop  acres  surrounding  it  for  the  farm  you  have  always  planned  to  own ; 
the  farm  where  you  and  the  wife,  the  children  and  their  children  may  get  in 
tune  with  life?  Has  that  time  come  yet?  Then  buy  a  ticket  for  Mystic  on 
the  Shore  Line,  about  half-way  between  Boston  and  New  York.  Look  up 
the  secretary  or  president  of  the  Men's  Club ;  tell  him  your  errand,  and  he 
will  try  to  show  you  that  Mystic,  Connecticut,  has  all  the  characteristics  of 
the  ordinary  New  England  village  extraordinarily  developed. 

Stonington  offers  unusual  inducements  as  a  place  of  summer  residence. 
It  is  situated  directly  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean;  indeed,  it  is  the  only  town  on 
the  main  line  of  the  New  Haven  railroad  between  New  York  and  Boston  with 
an  ocean  frontage.  It  also  lies  between  Stonington  Harbor,  a  safe  anchorage 
for  yachts,  protected  by  three  Government  breakwaters,  and  Little  Narra- 
gansett  Bay,  a  picturesque  sheet  of  water  on  the  farther  side  of  which,  three 
miles  distant,  is  situated  Watch  Hill,  one  of  the  most  famous  summer  resorts 


232  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

of  New  England.  Between  Stonington  and  Watch  Hill  a  passenger  steamer 
makes  frequent  trips  during  the  summer  season. 

This  situation,  on  ocean,  harbor  and  bay,  gives  Stonington  remarkable 
advantages  for  sailing  and  other  aquatic  sports.  The  town  is  the  headquarters 
for  an  extensive  fishing  industry,  bluefish,  cod  and  mackerel  being  among  the 
varieties  of  edible  fish  that  abound  in  the  nearby  waters.  The  ocean  breezes 
reduce  the  temperature  in  the  heated  months,  so  that  the  mercury  customarily 
registers  from  five  to  ten  degrees  below  the  temperature  in  neighboring  com- 
munities, while  in  winter  the  nearness  of  the  salt  water  tends  to  prevent  the 
extreme  cold  experienced  farther  inland. 

In  the  last  few  years  Stonington  has  taken  on  new  life  as  a  summer 
resort.  Many  city  residents  have  purchased  or  built  homes  in  the  borough 
and  vicinity,  and  a  first-class  summer  hotel,  to  which  the  name  of  the  Ston- 
ington Manor  Inn  has  been  given,  has  been  established  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  borough,  in  the  midst  of  a  beautiful  estate  of  field  and  forest,  ninety  acres 
in  extent.  There  are  also  a  number  of  inns  and  boarding  houses  within  the 
settled  portion  of  the  town. 

The  township  of  Stonington  contains  10,000  inhabitants.  Stonington 
borough  has  a  population  of  2,500,  and  is  situated  half-way  between  the 
eastern  and  western  boundaries  of  the  township.  The  town  was  settled  in 
1649;  the  first  house  in  what  is  now  the  borough  was  erected  in  1752.  In 
1814  the  place  was  the  scene  of  a  three  days'  bombardment  by  a  British 
squadron,  which  was  marvelously  repulsed  by  a  handful  of  defenders  with 
three  small  cannon.  This  event  was  elaborately  celebrated,  with  the  aid  of 
State  and  town  appropriations,  on  August  8-10,  19J4. 

Stonington  has  the  quality  of  quaintness  to  an  unusual  degree.  No 
nearby  community  possesses  quite  the  same  element  of  old-world  charm.  It 
has  a  free  library  with  nearh--  7,000  volumes  and  liberally  endowed,  an 
excellent  union  high  school  with  over  200  students,  five  churches,  express 
service  to  New  York,  Providence  and  Boston,  trolley  service  to  New  London, 
Mystic  and  Westerly,  improved  automobile  roads,  and  a  delightful  variety 
of  back-countr\-  scenery  within  easy  reach.  Its  Board  of  Trade  would  appre- 
ciate the  opportunity  of  acquainting  any  interested  persons  still  further  with 
its  advantages  as  a  place  of  residence,  either  for  the  summer  season  or  all 
the  year  round. 

The  town  of  Montville  is  situated  on  the  west  side  of  the  Thames  river, 
midway  between  Norwich  and  New  London.  It  is  especially  fortunate  in 
its  location,  having  a  deep  water  front,  best  of  steam  and  trolley  service,  as 
well  as  being  intersected  by  the  broad  macadam  boulevard  that  connects 
Norwich  on  the  north  and  New  London  on  the  south.  The  Oxoboxo  river 
furnishes  power  to  many  industries. 

Salem,  a  naturally  very  productive  farming  township,  northwest  of  New 
London,  has  been  comparativel)'-  isolated,  and  its  prosperity  retarded  because 
of  inferior  roads,  but  now  with  the  reconstruction  of  the  Hartford  Turnpike, 
largely  by  State  aid,  through  Waterford,  Montville,  Salem,  Colchester,  Marl- 
borough, Glastonbury  and  Hartford,  a  new  era  for  the  town  of  Salem  is 
assured. 


MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION  233 

Beautiful  Niantic  by  the  Sea!  This  village  is  situated  on  the  Connecticut 
shore  of  Long  Island  Sound,  seven  miles  west  of  New  London,  on  the  main 
line  of  the  N.  Y.,  N.  H.  &  H.  railroad  midway  between  Boston  and  New 
York,  and  on  the  Lincoln  highway  running  from  California  to  Maine.  It  also 
connects  with  New  London  by  trolley. 

The  village  derives  its  name  from  the  Niantic  Indians,  who  once  occupied 
this  stretch  of  the  north  shore,  fishing  upon  the  waters  of  sound,  lake  and 
rivers,  and  hunting  in  its  woodlands.  The  village  has  a  population  of  about 
800,  with  1,900  inhabitants  in  the  entire  town  of  East  Lyme,  of  which  the 
village  is  a  part.  This  village  ofifers  exceptional  opportunities  to  manufac- 
turers and  home-makers.  For  the  most  part  the  land  is  comparatively  level, 
and  many  acres  finely  located  could  be  secured  at  reasonable  prices. 

Lake  Niantic,  a  beautiful  sheet  of  crystal  water,  is  encircled  by  the  village. 
This  lake  is  principally  fed  by  springs,  covers  about  twenty-five  acres,  and  is 
a  never-failing  reservoir.  This  body  of  water  is  available  for  manufacturing 
purposes.  The  one-quarter  mile  spur  track  of  the  railroad  reaches  to  the 
lake,  passing  directly  by  Luce's  factory,  a  three-story  building  formerly 
occupied  by  the  Knickerbocker  Typewriter  Company,  now  for  rent.  The 
Technical  Equipment  Company,  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  brass  valves 
and  gauges,  occupy  the  factory  on  the  east  side  of  the  village.  The  streets 
are  well  kept  and  lighted  by  electricity.  There  are  four  churches — the 
Baptist,  Methodist  Episcopal,  Congregational,  and  Episcopal.  The  Roman 
Catholic,  at  Crescent  Beach,  one-half  mile  away,  is  open  during  the  summer 
season. 

Splendid  farms  adjoin  the  village.  The  soil  for  the  most  part  is  loam, 
with  gravel  subsoil,  and  especially  adapted  for  the  cultivation  of  fruit,  vege- 
tables and  grain.  As  means  of  enjoyment,  the  fishing,  bathing,  boating  and 
hunting  cannot  be  surpassed  anywhere  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

Crescent  Beach,  a  summer  resort,  one-half  mile  away  and  connected  with 
the  village  by  steam  and  trolley,  has  a  summer  population  of  1,500  people, 
while  Pine  Grove,  the  same  distance  from  the  center  of  the  village,  has  one 
hundred  cottages  and  is  the  summer  home  of  about  five  hundred  people. 
There  are  two  good  hotels,  and  an  efficient  livery  stable.  The  train  and  trol- 
ley service  meet  every  need  both  for  travel  and  transportation.  Everyone 
visiting  the  villag-e  for  the  first  time  is  charmed  with  its  location  and  general 
appearance,  and  expresses  the  wish  to  visit  it  again.  r>uring  the  summer 
season  many  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  world  visit  the  village  and  nearby 
beaches.  Niantic  is  also  the  summer  headquarters  for  the  National  Guard 
of  the  State,  who,  by  their  presence,  each  year  attract  many  friends  and 
visitors. 

Recently  a  Village  Improvement  Society  has  been  formed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  rendering  the  town  more  attractive,  and  to  promote  its  business 
interests.  Any  further  information  or  description  of  the  village,  its  con- 
ditions and  the  advantages  which  it  offers,  will  be  cheerfully  given. 

The  town  of  Ledyard,  a  quiet  farming  community,  is  situated  on  the 
east  shore  of  the  Thames  river,  directly  across  from  Montville.  Peach 
growing  and  strawberries  furnish  the  big  output  from  the  farms.     The  only 


234  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

village  in  the  town  is  Gales  Ferry,  on  the  N.  Y.,  X.  H.  &  H.  railroad,  noted 
for  being  the  headquarters  of  the  Yale  and  Harvard  crews  while  training  for 
the  college  regatta. 

The  village  is  composed,  in  a  large  measure,  of  summer  cottages.  Boat- 
ing and  fishing  attract  thousands  to  shores  of  the  Thames,  and  shore  prop- 
erty is  steadily  rising  in  value  in  all  the  towns  that  border  on  this  beautiful 
stream. 

From  an  article  in  the  "New  England  Magazine,"  written  by  Mr.  Henry 
R.  Palmer,  we  quote  the  following  description  of  Stonington: 

When  Longfellow  wrote  of  "the  beautiful  town  that  is  seated  by  the 
sea,"  he  was  thinking  of  Portland ;  but  his  tender  song  applies  to  Stonington. 
If  the  town  is  not  strictly  beautiful,  since  it  has  no  fine  buildings  and  stately 
streets,  still  it  is  set  in  the  midst  of  a  pleasant  country  and  the  charm  of  the 
.sea  wraps  it  about.  A  mile  from  the  shore  its  roads  wind  their  way  through 
overhanging  woods,  and  the  traveler  loses  his  sense  of  the  ocean,  except  as 
its  scent  is  borne  to  him  on  the  breeze.  But  from  every  hilltop  the  sea  is 
disclosed.  It  stretches  in  soft  expanse  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  On  clear 
davs  the  white  cliffs  of  Montauk  and  Block  Island  come  into  view.  A  dozen 
tall  lighthouses  cast  their  glow  over  the  evening  waters.  There  is  salt  in  the 
air  and  in  the  speech  of  the  fishermen.  It  is  the  sea  that  gives  the  town  its 
distinctive  note. 

Also  a  description  of  the  whaling  industry  in  its  prime: 

Shortly  after  1830,  the  whaling  industry  took  the  place  of  sealing  as 
the  chief  maritime  resource  of  Stonington.  Captain  Charles  P.  Williams  fitted 
out,  first  and  last,  no  less  than  twenty-eight  whaling  ships ;  Charles  Mallory 
of  Mystic,  on  the  western  borders  of  the  town,  nineteen ;  John  F.  Trumbull, 
eleven;  and  other  individual  owners  or  firms,  half  a  dozen.  The  industry 
reached  its  climax  in  the  forties,  when  fortunes  were  made  in  single  voyages, 
and  the  Arctic  and  Antarctic  seas  were  stripped  of  the  profitable  monsters. 
The  whalemen  sought  the  Southern  Ocean  first,  and  in  their  zeal  sailed  it 
from  east  to  west,  sometimes  circling  the  world.  When  the  whales  became 
scarce  in  that  portion  of  the  globe,  the  intrepid  venturers  made  their  way 
north  and  found  even  greater  prey  in  the  waters  of  Alaska  and  Kamschatka. 
Their  voyages  lasted  sometimes  but  a  few  months,  at  other  times  they  ex- 
tended over  four  or  five  years.  During  this  prosperous  period,  Stonington 
was  a  live  commercial  town.  The  fitting  out  of  a  whaleship  required  much 
time  and  industry,  and  the  sorting  of  cargoes  made  the  harbor  front  a  busy 
and  interesting  place.  Oil  casks,  anchors  and  rigging,  lumber  and  spars,  were 
strewn  about.  Sailors  lounged  at  the  corners  or  leaned  over  the  bar  at  the 
taverns.  Thev  wore  blue  trousers  and  roundabout  jackets  and  black  ties 
knotted  in  sailor  fashion.  They  were  a  jovial,  happy-go-lucky  lot  and  bent 
on  rough-and-ready  pastime  when  they  got  ashore.  The  taverns  rang  with 
the  scrape  of  their'  fiddles  and  the  clatter  of  their  hornpipes ;  and  once  when 
two  ships  sailed  into  port  the  same  day,  the  rival  crews,  boasting  of  the 
prowess  of  their  favorites,  formed  a  ring  on  Water  Streetand  held  high  fistic 
carnival.  As  fast  as  one  contestant  measured  his  length  in  the  dust,  another 
took  his  Dlace,  while  a  crowd  of  villagers  packed  the  street  and  cheered  the 
valiant.  There  was  little  brutality :  when  a  man  went  down  he  was  "out  of 
the  game."  One  young  fellow  of  fine  physique  maintained  his  place  in  the 
ring  against  a  large  number  of  fresh  comers.  One  blow  of  his  fist  was  enough 
for  each  of  them."  A  distinctive  American  artist  like  Mr.  Pyle  could  make  a 
lively  picture  of  the  scene. 


MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION  235 

The  annals  of  whaling  are  tinged  with  tragedy.  A  Stonington  captain 
died  at  sea,  and  his  wife,  who  had  accompanied  him  on  the  voyage,  brooded 
over  his  death  till  one  morning  her  room  was  found  empty,  with  the  window 
at  the  stern  of  the  vessel  open.  Accidents  on  shipboard  were  followed  by 
rough  but  effective  treatment  in  the  absence  of  a  doctor,  as  when  an  unfor- 
tunate colored  seaman  injured  his  leg  so  severely  that  amputation  became 
imperative.  The  captain — a  stern  disciplinarian  accustomed  to  strict  meas- 
ures— consulted  with  his  ship-keeper,  and  together,  after  the  suffering  man 
had  been  lashed  to  a  ring  in  the  deck,  they  sawed  off  the  ofTending  limb  and 
seared  the  arteries  with  fire. 

The  township  of  Stonington  contains  eight  thousand  people,  only  two 
thousand  of  whom  live  at  Stonington  borough.  The  remainder  are  divided 
between  Pawcatuck,  which  is  practically  a  part  of  Westerly  and  has  about 
four  thousand  inhabitants ;  Mystic,  at  the  western  extremity  of  the  town, 
with  fifteen  hundred  more ;  Old  Mystic,  three  miles  to  the  north  of  Mystic, 
with  a  population  of  five  hundred ;  and  an  extensive  farming  district.  Paw- 
catuck is  a  busy  community  with  manufactories  of  textile  goods  and  printing 
presses.  Mystic  is  a  picturesque  village  set  in  a  charming  valley,  with  cotton 
and  velvet  mills.  At  the  southwest  corner  of  the  town  is  Mason's  Island,  a 
part  of  the  grant  to  Captain  John  Mason,  the  Indian  fighter,  and  still  in  the 
possession  of  the  Mason  family ;  and  just  beyond  it  is  Mystic  Island,  the 
extreme  southwestern  limit  of  Stonington  authority.  The  town  for  the 
most  part  is  rocky,  and  the  superabundance  of  "stones"  may  account  tor  the 
name  of  "Stonington"  received  from  the  General  Court  in  1666.  Regarding 
this  name,  ex-Judge  Richard  A.  Wheeler,  the  "historian  of  the  Pequot  coun- 
try," writes  in  a  recent  letter :  "I  have  searched  as  with  lighted  candles  all 
of  our  New  England  records  to  learn  the  origin  of  the  name  of  Stonington, 
but  thus  far  have  failed.  I  have  two  books  entitled  gazetteers  of  all  the 
known  civilized  nations  of  the  world,  one  published  in  London  in  1782  and 
the  other  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1806.  in  neither  of  which  does  the  name 
of  Stonington  appear  except  as  a  place  in  Connecticut.  So  the  name  or  word 
Stonington  may  have  been  coined,  I  think,  by  one  or  both  of  our  representa- 
tives, viz.,  Thomas  Stanton,  Senior,  or  Samuel  Cheesbrough."  Be  this  as  it 
may.  it  has  taken  firm  root  in  American  nomenclature,  and  been  grafted  on 
new  communities  in  several  States  of  the  Union.  To  all  of  these  old  Stoning- 
ton sends  greeting  and  best  wishes  on  her  two  hundred  and  fifteenth  birthday. 

From  an  article  in  the  "Architectural  Record,"  by  Mr.  M.  W.  Pentz,  we 
quote  regarding  Stonington: 

There  remains,  as  far  as  I  know,  only  a  single  place  which  has  preserved 
to  any  marked  degree  its  Colonial  atmosphere,  and  that  is  Stonington.  Here 
progress  has  been  asleep,  its  population  has  barely  doubled  in  a  hundred 
years ;  its  old  sea  trade  is  dead  beyond  hope  of  recall.  Grass  grows  in  ita 
streets ;  its  wharves  are  tenanted  only  by  a  few  motor  boats  and  unused 
steam.ers  of  the  Sound  lines;  its  glory  has  departed.  It  is  kept  alive  by  a 
few  textile  factories  and  a  great  machine  works,  but  its  principal  industry 
is  summer  boarders,  fortunately  not  so  numerous  as  to  change  its  ancient 
tone.  The  resident  population,  aside  from  the  descendants  of  its  original 
settlers,  is  composed  largely  of  Portuguese  from  the  Azores  Islands,  descend- 
ants and  relatives  of  the  daring  sailors  who  once  formed  the  crews  of  its  fish- 
ing vessels.  Here  they  furnish  the  factories  with  labor  and  form  an  element 
both  picturesque  and  useful. 

I  suppose  the  trees  have  grown  up,  some  houses  have  been  reshincrled, 
a  few  new  shops  have  been  built,  but  in  the  old  portion  of  the  town  so  little 
has   been   changed   that   the   effect   is   precisely  what   it   must   have   been   a 


236  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

hundred  years  ago.  The  railroad  station  is  on  the  neck  of  land  which  sep- 
arates the  old  town  from  the  mainland,  no  trolley  passes  through  the  streets 
and  only  a  couple  of  side  tracks  to  the  unused  pier  of  the  steamship  company 
exist  to  changfe  its  appearance.  Even  these  wabble  around  so  unobtrusively 
through  the  back  yards  that  they  are  almost  invisible,  and  I  have  never  seen 
a  train  upon  them.  I  suppose  to  preserve  the  franchise  they  must  occasionally 
run  some  cars,  but  it  is  probably  done  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  when  every- 
body is  asleep  and  there  is  nothing  else  to  do. 

Immediately  bej^ond  the  green  is  the  south  end  of  the  point,  a  grassy, 
quiet  place  with  a  lovely  view  of  the  water  on  three  sides,  and  the  delightful 
old  stone  lighthouse  in  the  center.  This  is  a  splendid  place  to  sit  and  dream 
and  if  you  try  hard  enough  you  can  easily  fancy  Admiral  Hardy's  ships  fight- 
ing away  without  doing  any  harm  except  for  what  a  modern  lawyer  would 
term  the  damages  for  mental  anguish  of  the  inhabitants ;  who,  after  all,  do 
not  seem  to  have  been  much  alarmed.  In  the  harbor  not  far  from  the  point 
is  a  monument  which  marks  the  corner  betw"  n  the  States  of  Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island  and  New  York,  and  as  a  small  boy  I  went  out  there  and  sat 
with  my  legs  curled  around  it  "in  three  states  at  once." 

Turning  back  from  the  green  toward  the  square,  on  Main  street,  one 
passes  more  exquisite  examples  of  the  old  work,  of  which  the  most  charming 
is  the  house  known  to  the  youngsters  as  "Miss  Katty's,"  and  the  Wayland 
residence,  which  in  some  ways  is  the  show  place  of  the  town.  Almost  oppo- 
site the  Wayland  house  is  the  old  library,  a  typical  house  of  the  early  times, 
when  two-story  houses  were  taxed  by  the  King  and  when  one-story  houses 
went  free.  Still  on  Main  street  is  the  Second  Congregational  Church,  an 
interesting  example  of  church  architecture  of  the  early  nineteenth  century, 
although  not  in  detail  as  good  as  the  earlier  work.  Several  cross  streets 
connect  Main  and  W^ater  Streets  and  where  there  is  width  enough  little  side 
streets  project  like  spurs  from  them,  each  lined  with  residences,  quaint  or 
dignified  as  the  fancy  of  the  owner  dictated.  The  customs  house  still  flies 
the  flag  of  the  Revenue  Service,  and  I  suppose  the  collector  has  occasionally 
something  to  do,  yet  looking  through  the  window  one  sees  only  a  couple  of 
old  gentlemen  half  asleep  over  the  newspapers  and  a  collection  of  dusty  and 
mildewed  leather-bound  books. 

Peace  and  a  certain  sleepy  dignity  are  the  characteristics  of  the  old  town. 
It  is  unable  to  get  much  excited  about  anything;  changes  and  advances  in 
civilization  are  infrequent;  the  authorities  there  appreciate  the  loveliness  of 
the  place  and  are  anxious  to  keep  it  as  untouched  as  possible. 

The  following  figures  give  some  idea  of  the  financial  situation  of  the 
county  at  present.  The  list  shows  the  number  of  people  in  each  town  and 
city  in  New  London  county  who  paid  the  Federal  tax  on  their  incomes,  and 
whether  the  tax  was  based  on  incomes  over  or  under  $5,000  a  year: 


Bozrah   

Colchester 

East  Lyme 

Franklin 

0 

$5, 

ver 
,000 

0 

I 

9 

I 

14 

28 

0 

0 

0 

4 
6 

Under 

$5,000 

29 

49 

7» 

7 

520 

546 
8 

Griswold    

Groton    

Lebanon  

Ledyard  

Lisbon    

Lvme   

30 
0 

45 
191 

Montville    

New  London 256 

North  Stonington., 

Norwich    215 

Old  Lyme 

Preston  

Salem    

Sprague    , 

Sronmgton    , 

Voluntown    

Waterford , 


Over 

Under 

$5,000 

$5,000 

256 

2,732 

I 

I 

215 

2,805 

7 

41 

0 

4 

0 

I 

8 

318 

55 

980 

3 

21 

7 

132 

MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION 


237 


The  State  Senators  from  the  three  Senatorial  Districts,  called  Ninth, 
Tenth,  and  Eleventh,  till  1906,  and  thereafter  Eighteenth,  Nineteenth,  and 
Twentieth,  have  been  as  follows: 


Ninth  District 

1890-92 
Stephen  A.  Gardner 

1892-94 
Stephen  A.  Gardner 

1894-96 
Benj.  H.  Lee 

1896-98 
Benj.  H.  Lee 

1898-1900 
James  Pendleton 

1900-02 
James  Pendleton 

1902-04 
Thomas  Hamilton 

Eighteenth  District 

1904-06 
William  J.  Brennan 

I9o6ho8 
Charles  B.  Waller 

1908-10 
Fredk.  P.  Latimer 

1910-12 
Bryan  F.  Mahan 

1912-14 
Alton  T.  Miner 

1914-16 
Lucius  E.  Whiton 

1916-18 
James  R.  May 

1918-20 
William  C.  Fox 

1920 
C.  C.  Costello 


Tenth  District 
Charles  F.  Thayer 
S.  Ashbell  Crandall 
William  H.  Palmer,  Jr. 
Lucius  Brown 
John  H.  Barnes 
Wallace  S.  Allis 
Nelson  J.  Ayling 

Nineteenth  District 
Reuben  S.  Bartlett 
Alonzo  R.  Oborn 
William  I.  AUyn 
Charles  S.  Avery 
Charles  S.  Avery 
John  H.  Barnes 
John  H.  Barnes 
William  B.  Wilcox 
AIKti  L.  Brown 


Eleventh  District 
Alex.  C.  Robertson 
Alex.  C.  Robertson 
Wm.  F.  Gates 
John  N.  Lewis 
Henry  C.  Burnham 
Frederick  J.  Brown 
Arthur  M.  Brown 

Twentieth  District 
Austin  I.  Bush 
Harley  P.  Buell 
George  H.  Bradford 
Angus  Park 
Frederick  A.  Johnson 
Benjamin  H.  Hewitt 
Frank  H.  Hinckley 
Elisha  Waterman 
James  Graham 


The  Mayors  of  Norwich  have  been  as  follows: 


Benjamin  Huntington,  1784-96;  John  McLaren  Breed,  1796-98;  Elisha 
Hyde,  1798-1813;  Calvin  Goddard,  1814-31  (resigned). 

Since  1831,  elected  annually — James  Lanman,  1831-34;  Francis  Asher 
Perkins.  1834;  Charles  W.  Rockwell,  1835,  1838.  1846;  Charles  J.  Lanman, 
1838;  William  C.  Gilman.  1839:  John  Breed,  1840-42;  William  P.  Greeve, 
1842-43 ;  Gurdon  Chapman,  1843-45 ;  John  Breed.  1845  >  Charles  W.  Rockwell, 
1846;  John  Dunham,  1847-49;  William  A.  Buckingham,  1849-51;  LaFayette 
S.  Foster,  1851-53;  Erastus  Williams.  1853-55;  Wm.  L.  Brewer,  1855;  Wm. 
A.  Buckingham,  1856-58;  Amos  A.  Prentice,  1858-60;  James  S.  Carew,  1860- 
62;  James  Lloyd  Greene,  1862-66;  Lorenzo  Blackstone.  1866-70;  James  A. 
Kovey,  1870-71;  James  Lloyd  Greene,  1871-75;  Hugh  H.  Osgood.  1875-76' 
Charles  Osgood,  1S76-77;  Hugh  H.  Ossrood,  '877-86;  Increase  W.  Carpenter, 
1886-88;  A.  Ashbel  Crandall,  1888-92;  Calvin  L.  Harwood,  1892-96;  Frederic 
L.  Osgood,  1896-1900;  Charles  F.  Thayer,  1900-08;  Costello  Lippett.  igo8-io; 


238  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Charles  F.  Thayer,  1910-12;  Timothy  C.  Murphy,  1912-16;  Allyn  L.  Brown, 
1916-18;  Jeremiah  J.  Desmond,  1918-20;  Herbert  M.  Lerou,  192022. 
Mayors  of  New  London: 

Richard  Law,  1784-1806,  22  years;  Jeremiah  G.  Brainerd,  1806-29,  23 
years;  Elias  Perkins,  1829-32;  Coddington  Billings,  1832-35;  Noyes  Billings, 
1835-37;  Jirah  Isham,  1837;  Francis  Allyn,  1838-41;  George  C.  Wilson,  1841, 
died  July  20,  1841 ;  Caleb  J.  Allen,  August  12,  1841,  resigned  June,  1843;  An- 
drew M.  Frink,  1843-45,  resigned;  J.  P.  C.  Mather,  1845-50,  resigned  August; 
Arwirew  C.  Lippett,  1850-53;  Henry  P.  Haven,  1853-56;  Jonathan  N.  Harris, 
1856-62;  Hiram  Wilej',  1862-65;  Frederick  L.  Allen,  1865-71 ;  Augustus  Bran- 
degee,  1871-73;  Thomas  W.  Waller,  1873-79;  Robert  Coit,  1879-82;  George 
E.  Starr,  1882-85;  C.  A.  Williams,  1885-88;  George  F.  Tinker,  1888-91 ;  George 
Williams,  1891,  resigned  in  two  weeks;  Ralph  Wheeler,  1891-93,  resigned 
after  two  years;  A.  J.  Bentley,  1893-94;  James  P.  Johnston,  1894-97;  Cyrus 
G.  Beckwith,  1897-1900;  M.  Wilson  Dart,  1900-03;  Bryan  F.  Mahan,  1903-06; 
Alton  T.  Miner,  acting  Mayor  five  months  in  1905;  Benjamin  L.  Armstrong, 
1906-09;  Bryan  F.  Mahan,  1909-15;  Ernest  E.  Rogers,  1915-18;  E.  Frank 
Morgan,  1918-21. 

The  "New  London  Day"  recently  published  an  edition  celebrating  its 
fortieth  anniversary,  which  contains  much  valuable  information.  Among 
other  information,  it  printed  the  following  chronological  review: 

1880 — Population  of  New  London,  10.537. 

1881 — Charter  granted  Smith  Memorial  Home,  Masonic  street. 

1882 — Petition  recorded  from  telephone  company,  asking  permission  to  set 

poles  through  the  street. 
1882 — State  Armory  land  sold  by  Coit  heirs  to  State  of  Connecticut,  No- 
vember 9. 
1885 — Permission  granted  by  common  council  to  O.  L.  Livesey  "for  J.  A. 

Jenny  to  erect  poles  for  trying  out  the  experiment  of  lighting  the  city 

by  electricity  without  cost  to  the  city." 
1885 — City  meeting  voted  to  install  sewer  system. 

1888 — Nameaug  schoolhouse  built.    First  of  present  modern  structures. 
1889 — Thames  river  railroad  bridge  opened  for  the  use  of  the  New  Haven  and 

Boston  and  Providence  railroads. 
1890 — Pequot  Casino  Association  organized  July  12. 
1890 — Lyceum  Theater  opened.     First  play,  "The  Wife,"  by  the  Frohman 

Company,  April  7. 
1890 — Nathan  Hale  Grammar  School  erected. 
1891 — Williams  Memorial  Institute  erected. 
1891 — Montauk  avenue  opened.    First  called  the  Boulevard. 
1892 — New  London  Street  Railway  began  running  cars. 
1893 — Ocean  Beach  and  Lewis'  woods  sold  by  T.  M.  Waller  to  the  city. 
1893 — Winthrop  School  erected. 
1894 — Saltonstall  School  erected. 
1894 — Shiloh  Baptist  Church,  colored,  organized. 
1896 — Post  Office  building  erected. 
1896 — Mohican  building  erected. 
1896 — Brainard  Lodge,  F.  &  A.  M.,  altered  Universalist  Church,  Green  street, 

into  lodge  room. 
1896 — Robert  Bartlett  School  opened. 

1898 — First  Church,  Christian  Scientist,  organized,  June  26. 
1898 — Police  Station.  Bradley  street,  erected. 
1899 — Norwich  and  Montville  trolley  road  began  operation. 


MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION  239 

1899 — St.  Mary's  Parochial  School  started. 

1905 — Thames  Club  destroyed  by  fire,  rebuilt. 

1906 — ^John  Winthrop  Club  organized. 

1906 — New  London  Vocational  School  erected. 

1907 — East  Lyme  and  New  London  trolley  line  started. 

1907 — Harbor  School  erected. 

1908 — Pequot  House  destroyed  by  fire. 

1908 — Elks'  Home  built,  corner-stone  laid  August  13. 

1908 — Swedish  Congregational  Church  dedicated. 

1909 — All  Souls'  Church,  Huntington  street,  building  permit  issued. 

1909 — St.  Joseph's  Roman  Catholic  Church,  Montauk  avenue,  corner  stone 
laid  May  30. 

1909 — Southwest  Ledge  light  first  turned  on,  November  10. 

1910 — Lawrence  Free  Hospital  opened. 

1910 — Ship  and  Engine  Company  leased  factory  site  in  Groton  from  New 
Haven  railroad.    Purchased  same  in  1911. 

1911 — Fund  of  $134,196.14  raised  to  secure  location  here  of  Connecticut  Col- 
lege by  popular  subscription  up  to  March  i. 

1912 — Harbour  Club  building  permit  issued. 

1913 — Manwaring  building  erected. 

1914 — Union  Lodge,  A.  F.  and  A.  M.,  erected  new  building,  Union  street. 

1915 — Montauk  Avenue  Baptist  Church  rebuilt. 

1915 — Plant  building  erected. 

1916 — Y.  M.  C.  A.  building  erected,  Meridian  street. 

The  lists  of  Representatives  from  the  various  towns  of  the  State  have 
been  as  follows  for  thirty  years : 

Bozrah — 1890-92,  William  F.  Bogue;  1892-94,  John  J.  Gager;  1894-96, 
William  J.  Way;  1896-98,  E.  Judson  Miner;  1898-1900,  William  Kilroy;  1900- 
02,  William  Kilroy ;  1902-04,  Wareham  W.  Bentley ;  1904-06,  Wareham  W. 
Bentley;  1906-08,  John  S.  Sullivan;  1908-10,  John  F.  Fields;  1910-12,  John  F. 
Fields;  1912-14,  John  S.  Sullivan;  1914-16,  Nelson  L.  Stark;  1916-18,  John  J. 
Sweeney;  1918-20,  John  J.  Sweeney;  1920,  Elijah  S.  Abel. 

Colchester — 1890-92,  James  R.  Button,  Milton  L.  Loomis;  1892-94,  Frank 
B.  Taylor,  Clarence  H.  Norton ;  1894-96,  Wm.  E.  Harvey,  Howard  C.  Brown ; 
1896-98,  Edward  M.  Day,  William  Daudley;  1898-1900,  Addison  C.  Taintor, 
Edward  E.  Brown ;  1900-02,  Joseph  E.  Hall,  Charles  H.  Daudley ;  1902-04, 
John  R.  Backus,  Amatus  R.  Bigelow;  1904-06,  David  S.  Day,  Edward  C. 
Snow;  1906-08,  Samuel  N.  Morgan,  Guy  B.  Clark;  1908-10,  Edward  T.  Bun- 
yan,  Samuel  McDonald;  1910-12,  Asa  Brainard,  Harry  Elgart;  1912-14,  Harry 
Elgart.  Daniel  T.  Williams;  1914-16,  Daniel  W.  Willinrtis,  Curtis  P.  Brown; 
1916-18,  Edwin  R.  Gillette,  Jacob  J.  Elgart;  1918-20,  Samuel  Gellert,  William 
K.  Raymond :  1920.  Albert  H.  Foote,  George  Cutler. 

Griswold — 1890-92,  James  H.  Finn;  1892-94,  Frederick  H.  Partridge; 
1894-96,  John  Potter;  1896-98,  Ira  T.  Lewis;  1898-1900,  Samuel  S.  Edmond; 
1900-02,  Arthur  M.  Brown;  1902-04,  Albert  G.  Brewster;  1904-06,  Arba 
Browning;  1906-08,  Jonas  L.  Herbert;  1908-10,  John  W.  Payne;  1910-12,  J. 
Byron  Sweet;  1912-14,  Alfred  J.  L'Heureux;  1914-16,  John  Potter;  1916-18, 
John  F.  Hermon ;  1918-20,  Wm.  H.  McNicol ;  1920.  John  T.  Barry. 

Groton — 1890-92,  Charles  H.  Smith,  Amos  R.  Chapman ;  1892-94,  William 
R.  McGavhey,  Everett  L.  Crane;  1894-96,  Charles  H.  Smith,  Judson  F.  Bailey; 
1896-98,  Robert  P.  Wilbur,  Donald  Gunn;  1898-1900,  Wm.  H.  Allen,  Ralph 
H.  Denison ;  iQOO-02,  Wm.  H.  Allen,  George  A.  Perkins;  1902-04,  Benjamin 
F.  Burrows.  Albert  E.  Wheeler;  1904-06,  Simeon  G.  Fish,  Edward  F.  Spicer; 
1906-08,  Frederick  P.  Latimer,  Benj.  F.  Burrows;  1908-10,  Charles  H.  Smith, 


240  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Everett  L.  Crane;  1910-12,  Percy  H.  Morgan,  Edward  E.  Spicer ;  1912-14, 
Christopher  L.  Avery,  Allen  W.  Rathbun ;  1914-16,  Charles  T.  Crandall, 
Charles  H.  Kenyon ;  1916-18,  Georpe  R.  Hempstead,  Frank  E.  Williams ; 
1918-20,  Charles  H.  Smith,  Irvin  E.  Crouch;  1920,  Charles  H.  Smith,  Howard 
A.  Ed,?ecomb. 

Lebanon — 1890-92,  Isaac  G.  Avers',  Frederic  Gates;  1892-94,  William  C. 
Blanchard.  Fred  J.  Brown;  1894-96,  Hobart  McCall,  Robert  E.  Turner;  1896- 
98,  George  A.  Mills,  George  A.  Fuller;  1898-1900,  Llewellyn  P.  Smith,  Edw. 
H.  McCall;  1900-02,  Charles  B.  Strong,  Charles  H.  Loomis;  1902-04,  Charles 
S.  Briggs.  Charles  B.  Noyes ;  1904-06,  William  H.  Geer,  George  H.  Hewitt; 
1906-08.  Charles  A.  Perkins,  Fred'k  O.  Brown;  1908-10,  Isaac  G.  Larkin, 
Elisha  Waterman ;  1910-12,  George  H.  Hoxie,  Myron  R.  Abel! ;  1912-14,  Frank 
K.  Noyes,  Wm.  A.  Watson ;  1914-16,  Frederick  N.  Taylor,  James  A.  Thomas ; 
1916-18,  Edward  A.  Hoxie,  Wm.  T.  Curry;  1918-20,  Karl  F.  Bishop,  Edward 
W.  Jones ;  1920,  Stanton  L.  Briggs,  Arthur  E.  Hewitt. 

East  Lyme — 1890-92,  E.  K.  Beckwith ;  1892-94,  Arthur  B.  Calkins ;  1894- 
96,  George  P.  Hill;  1896-98,  Arthur  B.  Calkins;  1898-1900,  John  F.  Luce; 
1900-02,  Arthur  B.  Calkins ;  1902-04,  James  R.  White ;  1904-06,  John  T.  Beck- 
with ;  190608,  Frederick  A.  Beckwith ;  1908-10,  Washington  I.  Gadbois ;  1910- 
12.  Clifford  E.  Chapman ;  1912-14,  Jay  V.  Beckwith  ;  1914-16,  Marion  R.  Davis ; 
1916-18,  Asahel  R.  DcWolf;  1918-20,  Charles  R.  Tubbs;  1920,  Julius  T. 
Rogers. 

Franklin — 1890-92,  John  M.  N.  Lathrop ;  1892-94,  Clifton  Peck ;  1894-96, 
Clayton  H.  Lathrop;  1896-98,  James  H.  Hyde;  1898-1900,  Frank  B.  Greenslit; 
1900-02,  Azel  R.  Race;  1902-04,  Frederick  S.  Armstrong;  1904-06.  W»lter  S. 
Vail;  IQ06-08,  Abial  T.  Browning;  1908-10.  Frank  A.  Rockwood;  1910-12, 
James  H.  Hyde;  1912-14,  Frederick  W.  Hoxie;  1914-16,  C.  Huntington  Lath- 
rop; 1916-18,  Frank  I.  Date;  1918-20,  Herman  A.  Gager;  1920,  Charles  B. 
Davis. 

Ledyard — 1890-92,  George  W.  Spicer;  1892-94,  George  W.  Spicer;  1894- 
96,  Charles  A.  Gray;  1896-9S,  Nathan  S.  Gallup;  1898-1900,  Jacob  Gallup; 
1900-02,  Daniel  W.  Lamb;  1902-04,  Daniel  W.  Lamb;  1904-06,  William  I. 
Allyn;  1906-08,  William  I.  Allyn  ;  1908-10,  Frank  W.  Brewster;  1910-12,  Wil- 
liam I.  Allyn;  1912-14,  Isaac  G.  G«er ;  1914-16,  Joseph  D.  Austin;  1916-18, 
William  I.  Allyn;  1918-20,  William  I.  Allyn;  1920,  Henry  W.  Hurlbutt. 

Lisbon — 1890-92,  John  G.  Bromley;  1892-94,  John  G.  Bromley;  1894-96, 
James  E.  Roberts;  1896-98,  Charles  B.  Bromley;  1808-1900,  James  B.  Palmer; 
1000-1902,  Frank  E.  Olds;  1902-04,  Calvin  D.  Bromley;  1904-06,  Harry  L. 
Hull;  1906-08.  John  M.  Lee;  1908-10,  Ira  C.  Wheeler;  1910-12,  Herman  E. 
Learned;  1912-14,  James  T.  Shea:  1914-16,  Francis  H.  Johnson;  1916-18, 
James  Graham;  1918-20,  James  Graham;  1020,  Henry  J.  Kendall. 

Lyme — 1890-92,  Stephen  P.  Sterling,  Robert  M.  Thompson ;  1892-94,  J. 
Ely  Beebe,  Ephriam  O.  Reynolds;  1894-96,  Roswell  P.  LaPlace.  J.  Greffin 
Ely;  1896-98,  James  L.  Lord,  E.  Hart  Geer;  1898-1900.  Samuel  W.  Jewett,  J. 
Raymond  Warren;  1900-02.  James  Daniels,  James  E.  Beebe;  1902-04.  Lee  L. 
Brockway.  J.  Raymond  Warren;  1904-06,  Frederick  S.  Fosdick,  William 
Marvin;  1906-08,  j.  Raymond  Warren,  William  Marvin:  1908-10,  Nehemiah 
Daniels.  John  S.  Hall ;  1910-12,  J.  Warren  Stark,  Harold  H.  Reynolds  ;  1912-14, 
Charles  W.  Pierson,  John  S.  Hall :  1914-16,  John  S.  Hall.  Charles  W.  Pierson ; 
1916-18,  Ray  L.  Harding.  J.  Lawrence  Raymond ;  1918-20,  J.  Lawrence  Ray- 
mond, Hayden  L.  Reynolds ;  1920,  J.  Warren  Stark.  Arthur  G.  Sweet. 

Montville — 1890-92,  Charles  A.  Chapman;  1892-94,  John  F.  Freeland ; 
1894-96.  George  N.  Wood  ;  1896-98,  George  N.  Wood ;  1898-1900,  IMoses  Chap- 
man ;  1900-02,  Joseph  F.  Killeen ;  1902-04.  George  H.  Bradford  ;  1904-06.  Rob- 
ert C.  Burchard  :  1906-08,  Robert  C.  Burchard  ;  190S-10,  Dan  D.  Home ;  1910-12, 
Frederick  A.  Johnson ;  1912-14,  C.  Everett  Chapman  ;  1914-16,  Matt  A.  Tinker ; 


MISCELLANEOUS  INFORMATION  241 

1916-18.  George  H.  Bradford;  191S-20,  Edwin  F.  Comstock ;  1920,  Frank  W. 
Browning. 

New  London — 1890-92,  George  C.  Strong,  Walter  Fitzmaurice;  1892-94, 
George  C.  Strong,  Walter  Fitzmaurice;  1894-96,  Frederick  H.  Parmalee, 
Charles  R.  Boss;  1896-98,  Robert  Coit.  Cyrus  G.  Beckwith  ;  1898-1900,  Frank 
B.  Brandegee,  Charles  B.  Whittlesey;  1900-02,  Charles  B.  Whittlesey,  William 
B.  Coit;  1902-04,  Henry  Lambert,  William  B.  Coit;  1904-06,  Daniel  M. 
Cronin,  Charles  B.  Waller;  1906-08,  Lucius  E.  Whiton,  Carl  J.  Viets ;  1908-IO, 
Lucius  E.  Whiton,  Daniel  M.  Cronin  ;  1910-12,  Nathan  Belcher,  Lucius  E. 
Whiton;  1912-14,  Abel  P.  Tanner,  James  R.  Mav ;  1914-16,  Frank  Q.  Cronin, 
Cyrus  W.  Brown  ;  1916-18,  William  A.  Holt,  Will'iam  C.  Fox ;  1918-20,  William 

A.  Holt ;  George  Goss ;  1920,  Ernest  E.  Rogers,  Morris  B.  Payne. 

North  Stonington — 1890-92,  Cyrus  H.  Stewart,  George  W.  Edwards ; 
1892-94,  S.  Curtis  Eggleston.  Latham  Hull;  1894-96,  AmasaW.  Main,  George 
F.  Coats;  1896-98,  Amasa  W.  Main,  Samuel  Thompson;  1898-1900,  William 

B.  Cary,  George  F.  Coats ;  1900-02,  George  D.  Thompson,  E.  Frank  White ; 
1902-04,  George  D.  Thompson,  E.  Frank  White ;  1904-06,  Calvin  A.  Snyder, 
Latham  Hull;  1906-08,  Calvin  A.  Snyder,  Herbert  Richardson;  1908-10.  Frank 
H.  Brown,  Chester  S.  Maine;  1910-12,  Richard  B.  Wheeler,  Charles  Lyman 
Stewart;  1912-14,  Frank  H.  Brown,  Thurman  P.  Maine;  1914-16,  Clarence  E. 
Palmer,  Lyle  C.  Gray;  1916-18.  George  H.  Stone,  Horace  G.  Lewis;  1918-20, 
George  H.  Stone,  Malcolm  E.  Thompson;  1920,  Irving  R.  Maine,  N.  Frank 
Maine. 

Norwich — 1890-92,  Gardiner  Greene,  Jr.,  George  C.  Raymond;  1892-94, 
William  C.  Mowry,  William  H.  Palmer,  Jr. ;  1894-96,  Gardiner  Greene,  Jr., 
Joseph  Brewer;  1896-98,  John  H.  Barnes,  Currie  Gilmour ;  1898-1900,  Currie 
Gilmour,  Edwin  W.  Higgins ;  1900-02.  George  Greenman,  James  H.  Lathropj 
1902-04,  George  Greenman,  Frank  T.  ]\Iaples ;  1904-06.  Frank  T.  Maples, 
Herbert  W.  Hale;  1906-08.  Tyler  Cruttenden,  Henry  W.  Tibbits ;  1908-10, 
Henry  W.  Tibbits,  Charles  B.  Bushnell ;  1910-12,  Frederick  Dearing,  John  F. 
Cranev;  1012-14.  John  F.  Craney,  William  T.  Delaney;  1914-16.  Albert  J. 
Bailey,  Joseph  H.  Henderson ;  1916-18.  Albert  J.  Bailey,  Joseph  H.  Henderson  ; 
1918-20,  Patrick  T.  Connell,  Joseph   F.  Williams;  1920,   George  Thompson, 

C.  W.  Pendleton. 

Old  Lyme — 1890-92,  Lyman  Chapman ;  1892-94,  Henry  Austin ;  1894-96. 
James  T.  Bugbee ;  1896-98,  John  H.  Noble;  1898-1900.  Frank  I.  Saunders; 
1000-02,  Joseph  S.  Hnntin.gton ;  1902-04,  John  H.  Bradbury;  IQ04-06,  John  H. 
Bradbury:  1906-08,  Eugene  D.  Caulkins ;  1908-10.  John  H.  Noble;  1910-12, 
John  H.  Noble;  1912-14,  Thomas  L.  Haynes;  1914-16,  Joseph  S.  Huntington; 
1916-18,  Harry  G.  Pierson  ;  1918-20,  Robert  H.  Noble;  1920,  Harry  T.  Gris- 
wold. 

Preston — 1890-Q2,  Frank  W.  Fitch,  Charles  W.  Kingsley;  1892-94,  Henry 
E.  Davis.  William  H.  Burnett:  1804-06.  A.ustin  A.  Chapman,  Appleton  Main; 
1896-98,  Charles  F.  Boswell,  Charles  B.  Chapman;  1898-1900,  Daniel  L.  Jones, 
Gilbert  S.  Raymond;  1900-02,  Adolphus  D.  Zabriskie,  George  M.  Hvde ;  1902- 
04,  George  A.  Frink,  John  H.  Davis ;  1904-06,  Edward  P.  Hollowell,  John  H. 
Davis;  1906-08,  Luther  C.  Zabriskie,  Alexander  C.  Harkness ;  1908-10,  Arthur 
E.  Shedd.  James  F.  Thurston;  1910-12.  Walter  MacClisien.  HoIIis  H.  Palmer; 
1912-14,  Henrv  M.  Betlerig,  Allen  B.  Burdick;  1914-16,  Eckford  G.  Pendleton, 
William  B.  Mitchell :  IQ16-18,  Tames  B.  Bates.  John  P.  Holowell ;  1918-20, 
John  P.  Holowell,  Beriah  E.  Burdick;  1920,  E.  G.  Pendleton,  Joseph  E. 
Carpenter. 

Salem — 1890-02.  Alvah  Morgan ;  1892-94.  Edwin  H.  Harris ;  1894-96, 
Alvah  Morgan  ;  1896-98.  Albert  Morgan  :i898-i900.  Frank  S.  DeWolf ;  1900-02, 
Alvah  Morgan;  1902-04,  John  H.  Purcell :  1904-06,  Howard  A.  Rix;  1906-08. 
Sydney  A.  Dolbeare ;  190S-10,  Elmer  M.  Chadwich ;  1910-12.  Ernest  L.  Lati- 

X.L.— I-IC 


242  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

mer;  1912-14,  Lewis  Latimer;  1914-16,  J.  Frank  Rogers;  1916-18,  Carl  H. 
Rogers ;  1918-20.  James  Lane ;  1920.  William  B.  Kingsley. 

Sprague — 1890-92.  William  Ladd ;  1892-94,  Thomas  H.  Allen ;  1894-96, 
Thomas  H.  Allen  ;  1896-98.  Ebenezer  Allen  ;  1898-1900.  Henry  Buteau  ;  1900- 
02,  Joseph  Ouinn ;  1902-04,  Harold  Lawton ;  1904-06,  Angus  Parker;  1906-08, 
Raymond  J.  Jodoin :  1908-10,  Raymond  J.  Jodoin;  1910-12,  John  H.  Brown; 
1912-14,  Irenee  L.  Buteau;  1914-16.  Irenee  L.  Buteau;  1916-18,  Irenee  L. 
Buteau ;  1918-20,  Raymond  J.  Jodoin :  1920,  William  G.  Park. 

Stonington — 1890-92.  Silas  B.  Wheeler,  Warren  W.  Chase;  1892-94, 
George  R.  McKenna.  Arthur  G.  Wheeler ;  1894-96,  James  Pendleton,  Henry 
B.  Noyes,  Jr.;  1896-98.  James  Pendleton.  Elias  Williams;  1898-1900,  Frank 
H.  Hinckley,  George  H.  Maxson ;  1900-02.  Frank  H.  Hinckley,  George  H. 
Maxson ;  1902-04.  William  H.  Smith,  Charles  F.  Champlain ;  1904-06,  Charles 
F.  Champlain.  Peter  Bruggenam ;  1906-08.  Eli  Gledhill,  William  J.  Lord; 
1908-10,  William.  F.  Broughton.  Albert  G.  Martin :  1910-12,  Joseph  W.  Chese- 
bro,  John  R.  Babcock;  1912-14.  Joseph  W.  Chesebro,  Herman  L,  Holdridge; 
1914-16,  Elias  F.  Wilcox.  Bourdow  A.  Babcock;  1916-18,  Elias  F.  Wilcox, 
Bourdow  A.  Babcock;  1918-20.  Nathaniel  P.  Noyes,  Frederick  Boulder;  1920, 
Frederick  Boulder,  Nathaniel  P.  Noyes. 

Voluntown — 1890-92.  John  N.  Lewis;  1892-94,  Henry  C.  Gardner;  1894- 
96.  George  W.  Rouse;  1896-98.  Charles  E.  Maine;  1898-1900.  Ezra  Briggs; 
1900-02,  Oregin  S.  Gallup;  1902-04,  Edward  A.  Pratt;  1904-06,  James  W. 
Whitman;  1906-08,  Elam  A.  Kinne;  1908-10,  E,  Byron  Gallup;  1910-12, 
Azarias  Grenier ;  1912-14,  William  H.  Dawley,  Jr. ;  1914-16.  Stephen  B.  Sweet ; 
1916-18.  Constant  W.  Chatfield  ;  1918-20,  Constant  W.  Chatfield ;  1920,  Thomas 
A.  Brown. 

Waterford — 1890-92,  John  L.  Payne:  1892-94,  James  E.  Beckwith ;  1894- 
96,  William  C.  Saunders:  1896-98.  Frederick  A.  Jacobs;  1898-1900.  Albert  H. 
Lauphere ;  1900-02,  Albert  H.  Lauphere ;  1902-04,  Albert  H.  Lauphere ;  1904- 
06,  Edward  C.  Hammond ;  1906-08.  Selden  B.  Manwaring ;  1908-10,  Frederic 
E.  Comstock;  1910-12,  Albert  H.  Lauphere;  1912-14,  Albert  H.  Lauphere; 
1914-16.  Stanley  D.  Morgan;  1916-18,  John  C.  Geary;  1918-20,  John  C.  Geary; 
1920,  William  Ellery  Allyn, 


^-  r 


I.TRIIARY.    CONNECTICUT    COLI.KGE    FOR    WOMEN. 


CHAPTER  X 
EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS 

Connecticut  College — Norwich  Free  Academy — Bacon  Academy — Bulkeley  School — 
Williams  Memorial  Institute  —  New^  London  Vocational  School  —  Mystic  Oral 
School  for  the  Deaf. 

The  greater  number  of  the  following  narratives  of  notable  educational 
institutions  are  contributed  by  authorities  of  recognized  knowledge  and  abil- 
ity. The  first,  relating  to  Connecticut  College,  is  by  President  Benjamin  T. 
Marshall,  head  of  that  institution. 

CONNECTICUT  COLLEGE,  NEW  LONDON 

The  foundations  of  Connecticut  College  were  laid,  not  only  in  the  fine 
purposes  and  industry  of  the  incorporators,  but  also  in  the  faith  they  held  in 
women,  and  in  their  conviction  that  within  the  State  of  Connecticut  there 
should  be  a  modern,  progressive  college  for  women,  that  should  provide  these 
forms  of  higher  education  for  women  to  which  in  recent  years  they  have 
aspired  in  increasing  numbers,  and  for  the  privileges  of  which  they  have  now 
for  many  years  demonstrated  their  indisputable  qualification. 

But  there  is  also  the  glow  and  ardor  of  romance  in  the  story  of  the 
college,  for  how  else  shall  we  describe  the  experience  of  the  young  institution 
whose  hand  was  sought  by  a  score  or  more  towns  and  cities,  who  also 
promised  lavish  gifts.  Was  it  not  romance,  and  was  it  not  high  gallantry, 
that  moved  New  London  to  sue  so  ardently  for  the  hand  of  the  college  and 
to  present  so  promptly  the  gifts  it  promised,  in  the  form  of  lands  and  funds? 

The  college  will  never  forget  the  splendid  enthusiasm  of  New  London, 
its  corporate  body,  and  its  citizens,  nor  their  significant  and  munificent  gifts. 
The  coming  of  the  college  afforded  New  London  a  chance  to  demonstrate  a 
spirit  of  unity  and  of  devotion  to  education  which  became  in  a  real  way  the 
revival  of  a  civic  pride  and  spirit  which  has  characterized  the  citv  i'r.rnis- 
takably  in  these  recent  years. 

To  serve  and  honor  the  city,  which  has  served  and  honored  it,  will  be 
always  a  dominant  factor  in  the  purpose  and  life  of  the  college ;  for  it  recog- 
nizes that  by  virtue  of  its  character  and  purpose  it  should  be  the  purveyor 
to  the  city  of  opportunities  for  culture  through  lectures,  exhibitions,  musical 
programs  and  conferences  of  various  kinds,  and  seek  to  encourage  the  people 
of  the  city  to  avail  themselves  of  its  ever-widening  and  increasing  privileges. 

The  relations  of  city  and  college  each  to  the  other  were  begun  under 
happiest  auspices.  May  they  never  cease  to  be  reciprocally  joyous  and  profit- 
able. While  the  city  goes  about  its  daily  business,  the  "College  on  the  Hill" 
moves  faithfully  and  eagerly  forward  in  the  prosecution  of  its  program,  in 
devotion  to  its  distinctive  ideal. 

What  the  college  is  and  what  it  aims  for,  how  it  does  its  work,  and  in 
what  spirit  and  with  what  results,  the  following  paragraphs  aim  clearly  to 
state.  They  are  presented  as  the  official  statement  of  the  college  through  its 
president. 

I.  The  need  for  more  women's  colleges.    For  many  years  there  had  been 


244  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

among  educators  and  all  persons  interested  in  the  higher  education  of  women 
a  recognition  that  more  women's  colleges  of  high  grade  were  greatly  needed, 
since  the  women's  colleges  already  existing  were  either  filled  to  capacity  or 
over-crowded. 

Connecticut  College  came  into  existence  to  meet,  so  far  as  it  was  able, 
that  well-defined  need  of  more  high-grade,  centrally  located  colleges  for 
women.  It  became,  in  fact,  a  necessity  in  this  new  era  for  women,  which  has 
given  them  the  full  rights  of  suffrage.  Within  the  State  the  need  was 
accentuated  by  the  fact  that  Wesleyan  had  determined  to  be  solely  a  man's 
college ;  and  in  the  mind  of  Wesleyan  Alumna,  and  in  the  minds  of  friends 
whom  she  had  gathered  about  her,  the  idea  and  purpose  to  have  a  woman's 
college  within  the  State  of  Connecticut  took  root,  assumed  form,  and  became 
an  established  fact. 

2.  The  Specific  Need.  There  was  further  recognized  the  need  of  colleges 
specifically  for  women,  which  should  definitely  contemplate  the  tastes,  talents, 
aptitudes,  ambitions,  potential  service  and  possibilities  of  women  in  social, 
literary,  educational,  secretarial,  business,  professional  and  administrative 
positions;  and  should,  coupled  with  the  cultural  and  literary  and  scientific 
studies  which  serve  as  backgrounds  and  resources,  those  subjects  and  that 
training  in  them  which  give  a  vocational  emphasis,  and  stimulate  and  equip 
the  student  to  become  in  a  sane,  balanced  and  concrete  fashion,  both  socially 
minded  and  socially  efficient. 

Courses  coming  under  this  description  may  be  cited  as  those  of  home 
economics,  fine  arts,  music,  economics  and  sociology,  secretarial  studies  and 
office  practice,  library  science,  physical  education. 

3-  The  Purpose  and  Ideal  of  the  College.  The  eilfort  to  meet  these  needs 
generally  and  specifically  is  expressed  in  the  purpose  of  Connecticut  College, 
namely: 

To  offer  college  work  of  grade  and  value  second  to  none ;  to  offer  technical 
work  worthy  of  college  credit ;  to  prepare  for  professional  work  in  all  branches 
where  women  are  needed. 

In  short,  to  maintain,  with  high  standards,  and  to  conduct  with  highest 
efficiency,  a  curriculum  prepared  to  develop  each  woman's  peculiar  talents 
toward  her  most  effective  life  work. 

4.  The  Practical  Fulfillment  of  Purpose.  The  practical  operation  and 
demonstration  of  this  purpose  and  ideal  is  seen  in  the  inclusion  in  the  curri- 
culum of  the  familiar  college  subjects — the  ancient  and  modern  languages 
and  literatures,  mathematics,  chemistry,  physics,  botany,  zoology,  history, 
political  science,  economics,  sociology,  philosophy,  psychology,  education, 
biblical  history,  and  literature;  and,  with  their  specific  technical,  vocational, 
artistic,  domestic  and  social  values,  the  following:  Music,  fine  arts  (including 
drawing,  painting,  design,  interior  decoration,  mechanical  drawing  and  cer- 
amics) home  economics  (including  foods,  nutrition,  household  management, 
institutional  management),  library,  science,  secretarial  studies  and  office 
practice,  physical  education  (required  of  all  students  throughout  their  course). 

It  should  be  noted  that  there  are  courses,  in  their  respective  departments, 
for  the  training  of  teachers  in  Latin,  English,  French,  music,  physical  educa- 


BRANFORD  JIoL.Si: 


NEW    I-OXr>r)X    HALL,.    Si  J  K.\(  M-;    HU  i  l>l  >1.\(.; 


BI.ACK.ST(.'Xi:    }IUUt;K. 


rr.ANT  iTorsE. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  245 

tion.  besides  the  courses  in  education  ;  courses  in  chemistry  are,  some  of  them, 
conducted  with  reference  to  their  applications  of  that  science,  and  a  course 
in  psychological  chemistry,  in  its  relation  to  home  economics,  is  a  particularly 
progressive  and  timely  piece  of  work;  that  courses  in  mathematics,  such  as 
the  theory  of  investment  and  statistics,  have  a  direct  practical  value;  that 
courses  in  economics  and  sociology  are  presented  and  prosecuted  with  sym- 
pathy toward,  and  understanding  of,  the  instincts,  interest  and  aptitudes  and 
specific  adaptability  of  women  to  social  problems  and  social  work. 

The  work  in  fine  arts  and  in  music  is  not  merely  theoretical,  which 
method  would  tend  to  superficiality,  but  is  also  technical,  coordinated,  cx- 
pressional,  creative.  Thus  action  and  accomplishment  are  elevated  to  their 
rightful  place  in  granting  full  credit  to  studio  work;  and  action  (creative 
work)  is  seen  to  be  as  essential  to  any  worthy  sort  of  appreciation  in  the 
realm  of  art  as  laboratory  work  is  essential  for  the  correct  evaluation  and 
esteem  of  any  science.  In  this  policy  certain  results  are  already  unmistakably 
evident.  There  has  come  to  be:  (a)  a  respect  for  the  use  of  the  hand;  (b)  a 
higher  grade  of  work  in  the  studio;  (c)  greater  enjoyment  and  satisfaction 
in  the  work;  (d)  a  realization  that  education  does  not  mean  cessation  from 
all  work  of  the  hand. 

5.  Broad  and  Balanced  Curriculum — Values  and  Results.  Because  of 
the  breadth  of  opportunity  in  major  subjects  offered  in  the  preceding  list 
(the  regularly  accepted  academic  majors,  complemented  by  a  number  of 
majors  in  technical  courses   we  can  demonstrate  that : 

(a)  There  is  a  much  larger  percentage  of  students  who  find  courses  that 
lead  to  direct  activity  and  expression,  than  in  other  colleges. 

(b)  There  is  an  appreciable  increase  in  the  educational  value  of  the 
institution  from  the  very  distinct  and  varied  types  of  mind  and  of  person- 
ality that  are  attracted  by  a  diversity  of  courses. 

(c)  There  is  a  more  liberal  and  appreciative  academic  student,  who  has 
learned  that  arts  are  not  superficial,  but  fundamental ;  and  a  more  cultured 
and  better  technical  student,  by  reason  of  required  courses  in  foreign  lan- 
guage, English  literature,  science,  history  and  social  science. 

The  trustees  and  faculty  are  united  and  enthusiastic  in  the  loyal  under- 
taking of  this  program.  They  are  convinced  of  its  soundness,  practicability, 
and  high  value.  Their  confidence  and  enthusiasm  are  justified  by  the  superior 
quality  and  large  number  of  students  who  have  sought  admission,  a  number 
which  every  year  has  exceeded  the  capacity  of  the  college. 

6.  The  college  has  attracted  superior  students  in  large  numbers  from 
several  States.  Students  now  enrolled  in  the  college  number  approximately 
380;  the  largest  number,  we  believe,  ever  known  in  an  American  College  in 
its  seventh  year.  Students  come  from  twenty-one  different  States.  Several 
students  have  transferred  from  other  colleges,  to  find  in  Connecticut  College 
more  nearly  what  they  wanted  and  needed,  than  they  could  find  elsewhere, 
and  several  girls  have  entered  Connecticut  College  attracted  by  its  offerings, 
who,  from  their  early  years,  had  fully  purposed  to  enter  other  and  older 
women's  colleges.  The  college  has  graduated  three  classes,  the  class  of 
1919  with  sixty-eight  who  received  degrees,  and  the  class  of  1920  with  sixty- 


246  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

nine  who  received  degrees,  and  the  class  of  1921.    We  believe  that  no  other 
college  in  America  can  cite  such  large  figures  for  its  first  three  classes. 

7.  Complete  Student  Self-government.  No  argument  attempting  to  jus- 
tify the  existence  and  service  of  the  college  would  be  complete  that  did  not 
stress  the  value  and  significance  of  the  system  of  full  student  self-government, 
granted  by  the  faculty  to  the  student  body  from  the  first.  The  system  pro- 
vides for  a  complete  control  of  all  the  life  and  activity  of  the  students,  except 
in  strictly  academic  matters.  It  is  organized  as  a  representative  democracy, 
and  functions  with  reality,  efficiency,  good  judgment,  and  we  believe,  with 
increasing  success. 

The  counsel,  suggestion,  and  experience  of  faculty  and  administration 
is  always  available,  and  is  frequently  sought,  and  in  all  more  vital  matters 
is  always  requested. 

In  managing  their  own  affairs  as  a  real  democracy,  students  are  trained 
in  responsibility,  cooperation,  initiative,  in  forming  judgments,  in  making 
choices,  in  creating  policies,  in  establishing  tradition,  and  maintaining  college 
morale,  and  in  official  duties  and  committee  work  learn  valuable  lessons  in 
tact,  appreciation,  discrimination  and  in  administration  and  execution. 

8.  The  Spirit  of  the  College — Loyalty,  Enthusiasm.  Cooperation,  Con- 
fidence. The  undoubted  effect  of  this  organization  of  the  students  has  been 
to  develop  a  spirit  of  true  democracy,  without  religious  or  social  or  class 
prejudices ;  to  stimulate  respect  for  work  in  all  its  forms,  particularly  with 
reference  to  students  working  their  way  through ;  there  is  tolerance  and  good 
will  and  sympathy ;  the  bases  of  the  organization  are  work,  responsibility, 
liberty,  solidarity,  and  a  type  of  girl  is  being  developed  who  is  entirely  free 
from  pedantry  and  cant ;  she  is  open,  sincere,  unselfish  and  of  sound  judg- 
ment and  initiative,  able  to  deal  with  people  and  with  situations,  yet  without 
conceit  or  assumption. 

Through  all  the  activities  of  the  college,  both  in  its  academic  and  social 
side,  there  breathes  an  intense  spirit  of  loyalty  and  of  enthusiasm.  From 
the  beginning  the  students  were  made,  by  the  administration  and  the  faculty, 
to  realize  how  much  the  morale  and  spirit  of  the  college  were  in  their  keeping, 
and  they  have  grown  in  intensity  of  appreciation  and  responsibility  for  the 
highest  character  in  college  life. 

The  spirit  of  cooperation  is  cultivated  in  the  fact  that  the  college  does 
things  together.  It  meets  every  day  for  Chapel,  every  Sunday  for  Vespers, 
every  Tuesday  for  Convocation,  as  a  college  body,  faculty  and  students  merg- 
ing; and  it  undertakes  an  interest  and  a  support  of  outside  activities  in 
college-wide  fashion.  When  called  upon  to  give,  as  for  instance  during  the 
war,  to  the  Students'  Friendship  War  Fund,  to  the  United  War  Campaign, 
and  more  recently  in  aid  of  the  students  and  professors  of  the  colleges  in 
central  Europe,  it  organizes  its  efforts  as  an  all-college  affair,  pours  its 
energy,  its  enthusiasm,  its  zeal,  its  gifts,  into  one  common  effort,  and  the 
result  is  issued  with  the  seal  and  endorsement  of  the  entire  college  upon  it. 

There  is  in  all  the  life  of  the  college  great  confidence  in  the  institution,  a 
splendid  satisfaction  in  its  work,  great  happiness  in  its  fellowship,  and  a  fine 
sense  of  challenge  in  the  richness,  variety  and  wholesomeness  of  its  entire 
comradeship,  student  and  faculty  alike. 


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ABOVK,    WINTHROP  HOUSK.      IN    CKNTKIt.   THA.MKS    HAI,h,    ItlCFECTciH V.      BKLoW. 

GYMNASIUM. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  247 

The  spirit  of  cooperation,  understanding,  unanimity,  which  prevails,  may 
be  expressed  when  we  say  that  in  the  four  years  of  the  present  administration 
there  has  not  been  in  the  board  of  trustees  a  single  divided  vote ;  and  in  the 
faculty,  on  no  vital  point,  anything  but  practical  unanimity. 

9.  Favorable  and  appreciative  attitude  of  educators  and  institutions  to- 
ward Connecticut  College.  The  attitude  and  favor  and  good-will,  confidence 
and  commendation  on  the  part  of  educators  and  of  presidents  of  other  women's 
colleges  has  been  very  cheering.  Without  exception,  the  older  colleges  have 
welcomed  Connecticut  College  into  the  sisterhood,  have  declared  that  it  was 
greatly  needed ;  that  the  kind  of  work  it  is  doing  is  essential  and  is  well  done, 
and  that  its  future  is  bright  and  challenging.  The  comment  of  President 
MacCracken  of  Vassar  is  perhaps  as  significant  as  any,  when,  after  speaking 
of  several  forward  steps  in  the  education  of  women  in  America  in  recent 
years,  he  says: 

Among  these  steps  the  most  important  is  undoubtedly  the  founding  of 
Connecticut  College  at  New  London,  and  all  friends  of  higher  education  for 
women  have  welcomed  its  entrance  into  the  field,  because  it  is  clear  from  the 
general  trend  of  registration  that  women  will  in  increasing  numbers  seek  the 
college  degree. 

Visitors  to  the  campus,  representing  other  colleges,  presidents,  deans, 
registrars,  official  committees  of  visitation  with  specific  errands,  have  spoken 
uniformly  of  their  pleasure  in  the  visit,  of  the  distinct  impression  of  industry, 
vigor  and  worth  in  which  the  college  work  is  done,  and  congratulated  the 
college  on  its  site,  on  its  work,  and  on  its  prospects.  Organizations,  whose 
representatives  have  come  to  give  counsel  to  the  students  with  reference  to 
future  occupation,  representatives  of  social  organizations  seeking  superior 
material,  for  graduate  study  in  schools  of  social  service,  have  expressed  them- 
selves in  such  language  as  this : 

"In  conference,  the  students  ask  most  intelligent  questions." 
"Know  what  they  want." 

"Have  a  knowledge  of  the  factors  in  social  and  industrial  situations  more 
than  students  of  other  colleges  visited." 

The  college  has  freely  been  granted  the  counsel  of  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  whose  aid  in  planning  various  lines  of  community  work  under 
the  auspices  of  the  sociology  department  has  been  offered. 

Graduates  of  the  college  have  gone  forth  to  social  work  or  to  advanced 
study  on  the  basis  of  the  work  done  here,  and  have  been  given  practically  a 
year's  credit  in  advance  over  the  graduates  of  other  institutions,  whether  in 
graduate  study  or  in  active  positions  on  the  staf?  of  charity  or  social  organ- 
izations. 

10.  Record  of  Graduates :  Variety  in  activity  and  service,  and  gratifying 
success.  All  that  precedes,  which  is  an  effort  to  justify  the  existence  of  the 
college,  finds  its  concrete,  and  we  believe  unanswerable  justification  in  the 
quality  of  the  product  of  the  college  in  its  graduates  and  in  the  nature  and 
quality  of  the  service  they  are  rendering  in  their  present  fields. 

There  are  180  alumnae  of  the  college,  graduates  in  the  first  three  classes, 


248  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

igiQ,  1920  and  1921.  The  director  of  the  college  appointment  bureau  reports 
that  these  graduates  are  largely  engaged  in  the  work  toward  which  their 
major  work  in  college  particularly  fitted  them. 

The  success  and  gratifying  service  of  such  graduates,  from  whom  we 
have  received  definite  returns,  is  due,  not  alone  to  the  careful  and  able  training 
by  a  competent  faculty,  but  also  to  that  spirit  of  enthusiasm,  of  loyalty  and 
cooperation  which  has  characterized  the  college  since  its  inception,  a  passion 
to  do  whatever  they  do  worthilj",  and  to  count  constructively  by  rendering 
a  specific  service  to  society. 

There  is  a  profound  confidence  in  the  college  on  the  part  of  the  trustees, 
faculty,  students  and  friends  of  the  college  alike.  They  take  pride  in  its 
genuine,  though  modest  accomplishment,  and  they  feel  confident  of  its  future 
and  hopeful  and  zealous  of  its  maintenance  and  expansion  along  the  lines 
projected  from  the  beginning  and  faithfully  followed  to  this  moment,  so  far 
as  years  of  war  and  relatively  unincreased  endowment  have  permitted. 

The  preceding  paragraphs,  we  trust,  constitute  a  sufficient  and  genuine 
justification  of  the  existence  of  the  college.  Our  conviction  is  that  the 
college  was  opened  to  meet  both  a  general  and  a  specific  need,  that  it  estab- 
lished for  itself  a  splendid  purpose  and  a  high  ideal,  and  it  set  itself  vigorously 
and  conscientiously  to  the  practical  fulfillment  of  that  purpose.  It  has  offered 
a  broad  and  balanced  curriculum  of  soundness,  practicability,  undoubted 
values  and  of  high  promise.  It  has  summoned  to  itself  superior  students  in 
large  numbers  from  a  wide  area.  It  has  cultivated  in  them  a  passion  to  do 
whatever  they  do  worthily,  and  to  count  constructively,  whether  by  helping 
to  brighten  a  home  and  elevate  the  life  of  a  family,  or  by  rendering  some 
more  specific  service  to  society  at  large. 

It  has  already  developed  a  peculiar,  significant  and  exalted  spirit,  which 
is  recognized  as  distinctive,  strong  and  exceptional.  It  has  won  from  the 
beginning  and  in  increasing  measure,  the  welcome,  the  appreciation,  the 
regard  and  commendation  of  its  sister  colleges,  their  leaders  and  all  educators 
who  have  come  to  know  it;  and  chiefly,  and  above  all,  it  has  contributed  in 
its  graduates  a  group  of  women  who  are  undertaking  specific  tasks  toward 
which  the  college  unmistakably  directed  them,  following  their  natural  bent, 
ambition  and  equipment,  and  they  are  doing,  each  in  her  own  place,  the 
world's  work  in  a  way  that  is  worthy,  noble  and  commendable,  to  the  credit 
of  the  college  they  love,  to  the  honor  of  their  own  lives,  and  as  a  rare  and 
distinctive  contribution  to  the  life  of  America. 

NORWICH  FREE  ACADEMY 

This  historical  sketch  of  the  Norwich  Free  Academy  is  by  Rev.  Lewellyn 
Pratt,  D.D.,  formerly  president  of  the  corporation. 

The  next  oldest  of  the  private  schools  of  the  county  is  the  Norwich  Free 
Academy.  The  following  account  of  its  early  days  was  delivered  by  Dr. 
Lewellyn  Pratt,  its  president,  in  1906,  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its 
opening: 


■2 


.'■a 


...ai5 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  249 

The  storj'  of  the  fifty  years  of  the  Norwich  Free  Academy  is  very  simple 
compared  with  that  of  Winchester,  Eton,  Rugby,  Harrow  and  other  great 
schools  of  Europe,  with  their  five  and  six  centuries  of  achievement,  and  yet 
the  history  of  these  fifty  years,  given  in  any  fair  completeness,  would  require 
more  time  than  I  can  take  today.  I  must  content  myeslf  with  a  mere  intro- 
duction to  what  is  to  follow  in  the  addresses  of  these  two  days. 

For  many  years  before  1856  the  need  of  improvement  in  the  schools  of 
Norwich  had  been  keenly  felt,  and  various  attempts  had  been  made  to  bring 
them  together  into  some  system  and  to  establish  schools  of  a  higher  grade. 
The  discussions  that  immediately  preceded  the  organization  of  the  Academy 
aroused  much  opposition,  but  they  directed  attention  to  the  need  and  strength- 
ened the  determination  to  find  some  way  by  which  an  advance  could  be  made. 
The  opposition  was  so  decided  that  it  did  not  seem  feasible  to  wait  for  a  vote 
of  the  town  to  make  that  advance,  nor  altogether  safe  to  trust  to  that  to 
maintain  it.  if  by  chance  it  could  be  made.  Under  the  leadership  of  the  Rev. 
John  P.  Gulliver— to  whom  as  the  organizer  more  credit  is  due  than  to  any 
other  one — the  plan  of  an  endowed  academy,  which  should  be  so  correlated 
with  the  grammar  schools  that  it  should  take  the  place  of  the  high  schools, 
then  being  formed  and  developed  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and  at 
the  same  time  so  independent  of  political  control  and  free  to  accept  all 
approved  methods  of  education  as  to  bring  and  keep  it  in  close  connection 
with  the  higher  institutions  of  learning,  was  adopted.  A  group  of  men  was 
found  in  Norwich  far-sighted  and  public-spirited  enough  to  grasp  and  wel- 
come the  idea,  and  with  singular  generosity  to  furnish  the  means  by  which 
it  could  be  realized.  All  honor  to  those  men  of  faith  and  self-sacrifice  who, 
without  expectation  of  pecuniary  return  for  themselves,  gave  freely  of  their 
wealth  for  that  which  the  public  would  soon  have  been  almost  compelled  to 
do  by  increased  taxation,  devised  the  plan  which  has  stood  the  test  of  time 
and  bestowed  a  benefaction  which  is  to  bless  many  generations ! 

Some  of  you  may  recall  the  verses  with  which  Mrs.  Sigourney  celebrated 
the  spirit  of  this  benefaction,  which  were  read  at  the  opening  of  the  school: 

There's  many  kinds  of  stocks,  they  say. 

That  tempt  the  speculators; 
But  what  is  safest  lield,  and  best. 

Might  tax  the  shrewdest  natures. 
Sage  Franklin  said  in  earlier  days, — 

And  now  the  wisest  bless  him, — 
"Who  pours  his  purse  into  his  brains, 

No  man  can  dispossess  him." 

And  so,  the  people  .of  my  love 

His  theory  have  tested, 
And  for  their  children  and  themselves 

A  glorious  sum  invested. — 
And  by  this  dome,  for  knowledge  rear'd, 

Which  no  dark  mortgage  fetters, 
Have  nobly  made  a  race  unborn 

Their  everlasting  debtors. 


250  NEW  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

And  as  in  old  historic  times. 

Though  exiled  and  unnoted, 
The  Roman  citizen  with  pride 

His  honored  birth-place  quoted: 
So  I,  with  quickened  heart  this  day, 

Warm  orisons  addressing 
Ask,  for  these  native  rocks  and  dales 

Our  Father's  richest  blessing. 

The  aims  of  the  founders,  as  set  forth  by  them  when  they  applied  for 
their  charter  in  1854.  were:  i.  To  excite  in  the  minds  of  parents,  guardians 
and  children  a  deeper  interest  in  education.  2.  To  stimulate  scholars  in 
primary,  intermediate  and  grammar  schools  to  higher  attainments  in  the 
elementary  branches.  3.  To  elevate  the  standard  of  education  in  the  town 
and  vicinity.  4.  To  furnish  the  facilities  for  a  higher  education  for  our  sons 
and  daughters  so  cheaply  that  the  poorest  can  enjoy  them,  and  so  amply  that 
the  richest  shall  be  grateful  for  the  privilege  of  receiving  their  benefits. 

The  great  aim  of  the  plan  was  the  betterment  of  all  the  schools,  and  its 
immediate  result  was  the  consolidation  of  two  of  the  districts  and  the  build- 
ing and  equipment  of  larger  and  more  commodious  schoolhouses,  and  since 
that  time  there  has  been  steady  advance  of  the  standard  in  the  schools  of  the 
town  and  vicinity.  Starting  in  1856,  a  small  school,  we  mark  some  tokens 
of  steady  growth.  At  its  opening  there  were  eighty  scholars  with  five 
teachers.  The  present  enrollment,  including  those  in  the  Art  and  Domestic 
Science  departments,  is  about  four  hundred  and  fifty,  with  twenty-three 
teachers.  The  original  endowment  was  $50,000,  with  $36,000  more  invested 
in  building  and  equipment.  In  spite  of  the  fears  expressed  that  an  endowed 
school  would  suffer  by  the  decline  of  interest  after  the  original  donors  should 
pass  away,  the  endowment,  through  the  same  self-sacrifice  and  public  spirit 
that  characterized  them  animating  their  descendants,  has  increased  to  ten 
times  the  original  amount,  and  the  investment  in  lands  and  buildings  and 
apparatus  to  more  than  eight  times  what  it  was  at  first.  In  the  first  years 
there  were  only  the  Classical  and  English  departments.  To  these  have  been 
added  the  Art,  the  Manual  Training  and  the  Domestic  Science  departments, 
while  the  two  original  divisions  have  been  enlarged  and  enriched,  keeping 
pace  on  the  one  hand  with  the  advanced  requirements  of  our  leading  colleges 
and  on  the  other  with  the  need  of  more  thorough  scientific  and  practical 
courses  for  those  who  finish  their  school  life  in  the  Academy  and  enter  upon 
the  duties  of  domestic  and  business  life.  A  notable  part  of  the  equipment, 
to  which  attention  was  called  by  speakers  at  the  opening  of  the  school,  was 
the  establishment  of  the  Peck  Library.  This  has  been  steadily  increased  by 
the  income  of  its  separate  endowment  till  it  now  numbers  thirteen  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  eighteen  volumes  of  carefully  selected  books,  which  are  in 
constant  use  by  the  school.  A  promising  and  most  important  department  of 
Normal  Training  was  projected  and  carried  on  for  seven  years,  giving  to  the 
public  schools  a  number  of  well  trained  teachers  who  have  by  their  successful 
work  and  the  high  positions  they  have  attained  vindicated  the  plan  that  was 
proposed.  This,  because  of  difficulties  of  adjustment  that  were  encountered, 
was  abandoned  in  1896.    During  these  fifty  years  there  have  been  graduated 


KIM'.    Al  'A  1  'l'J.\l  'I        -A  I  :i  l\   i;,     AT     I.I  .  IT,     SI.  Nil  ,  I  I     I  1  A  I.I.,     I.I  I'.  KA  K  ^      ,\  .\  I  '     .M  I    .^IJl    .M  ,     X\    IIH 

ART  DEPART.MEXT  IN    KEAR:   IiV   CENTER,   MAIN   ACADEMY    Bl'lLDING.      BELOW, 
REAR    VIEW;    AT    LEFT,    MANUAL   TltAINING    BriLDlNc;;    CENTER,    MAIN    ACAD 
EMY    BUILDING;    AT    RIGHT.   .SLATEIt    HALL.    SHOWING   ART    BI^LDING. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  251 

from  the  academy  1,310,  and  from  the  normal  department  81.  As  many  more 
have  taken  a  partial  course  in  the  school.  These  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven 
hundred  are  now  scattered  in  almost  every  State  of  the  Union,  and  many  are 
in  foreign  countries. 

From  the  first  the  school  has  not  been  restricted  to  narrow  town  limits. 
The  original  donors,  while  primarily  aiming  to  benefit  the  schools  of  the 
town,  took  a  large  view  of  the  position  of  Norwich  in  its  relation  to  the  sur- 
rounding community,  and,  regarding  it  as  a  commercial  center  for  the  towns 
around,  they  planned  that  it  might  become  an  educational  center  for  the  vicin- 
ity, and  on  condition  of  a  moderate  payment  opened  its  doors  to  those  from 
other  places  who  could  successfully  pass  its  examinations.  One  of  the  first 
scholarships  established  was  specially  designated  by  its  giver  as  for  the  benefit 
of  scholars  from  his  native  town,  many  miles  distant.  Later,  when  an  addition 
of  $50,000  was  added  to  the  endowment,  one  of  the  conditions  made  by  the 
donors  was  that  "the  academy  should  be  open  to  scholars  from  any  quarter." 
And  several  of  the  scholarships  given  since  were  to  be  offered  to  out-of-town 
pupils  on  equal  terms  with  those  of  the  town.  "Greater  Norwich" — and 
Norwich  once  included  greater  territory — has  been  considered  as  sharing  the 
benefit:  and  well  has  that  expectation  been  justified  not  only  by  the  numbers 
that  have  been  attracted  hither — some  to  become  permanent  residents — but 
by  the  character  of  those  who  came  and  the  credit  they  have  reflected  upon 
the  school.  The  amount  received  for  tuition  the  last  year  from  these  out-of- 
town  pupils  was  nearly  equal  to  the  whole  income  of  the  first  year.  As  a 
high  school  for  Norwich,  the  academy  has  been  a  great  gift  to  the  town, 
relieving  it  of  a  vast  amount  of  taxation  during  these  fifty  years ;  and  as 
something  more  than  a  high  school,  an  academy,  it  has  been  a  great  gift  to 
Eastern  Connecticut.  In  its  present  enrollment,  seventy-five  are  from  beyond 
the  narrovi-  limits  of  present  Norwich. 

The  school  was  fortunate  in  the  large  and  liberal  views  of  the  founders 
and  in  their  wise  purpose  to  keep  it  free  for  all  time  from  the  contingencies 
of  politics  and  to  give  it  a  stable  character  by  placing  its  control  in  the  hands 
of  a  self-perpetuating  board  of  corporators  who  might  be  free  to  study  its 
interests  and  make  far-reaching  plans  without  fear  of  sudden  displacement 
or  reversal. 

It  was  fortunate  in  its  location  in  this  beautiful  spot  in  historic  Norwich. 
Here,  in  the  midst  of  homes  of  wealth  and  culture,  it  has  found  a  wholesome 
atmosphere  and  congenial  soil.  The  questioning  of  early  days  has  given  place 
to  pride  in  its  possession,  and  the  generosity  of  its  early  friends  has  been  well 
sustained  by  their  successors. 

It  has  been  specially  fortunate  in  the  character  and  ability  and  work  of 
its  chosen  leaders  to  whom  the  great  task  of  development  has  been  committed. 

It  has  had  four  principals : 

I.  Professor  Elbridge  Smith,  a  man  trained  in  the  best  schools  of  Massa- 
chusetts at  that  time,  from  1856  to  1865.  The  work  of  the  beginning  from 
almost  chaos  was  in  his  hands.  He  proved  himself  a  good  organizer  and 
disciplinarian,  and  amid  the  discouragement  of  the  day  of  small  things  and 
of  the  period  of  formation,  and  then  of  almost  disbanding  because  of  the 


252 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


drafts'  made  by  the  spirit  of  patriotism  in  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  (from 
the  small  numbers  then  connected  with  the  school,  fifty-six  enlisted  in  the 
army),  he  carried  the  work  through  its  early  stages  wisely  and  well. 

2.  Professor  William  Hutchison,  who  succeeded  him  from  1865  to  1885, 
who  brought  to  the  school  a  large  and  inspiring  spirit,  and  by  his  sympathetic 
relation  with  his  pupils,  his  broad  common  sense  and  wide  interest  in  all 
that  concerned  the  town,  gave  to  the  school  an  acknowledged  place  in  the 
affections  of  the  people.  What  tributes  were  paid  to  his  memory  at  our 
Fortieth  Anniversary !    Any  school  is  fortunate  in  such  a  memory. 

3.  Professor  Robert  Porter  Keep,  who  came  in  1886  and  whose  term  in 
office  was  next  to  the  longest  in  its  history,  ending  in  1903.  Professor  Keep 
was  a  scholar  of  great  attainment,  worthy  of  a  place  in  university  work,  who 
with  singular  and  untiring  devotion  gave  himself  to  the  cause  of  secondary 
education,  and  saw  here  opportunities  for  development  and  growth  that  had 
scarcely  been  dreamed  of  before.  To  him  we  owe  in  large  measure  the  Art 
department,  the  Normal,  the  Manual  Training  and  Domestic  Science  depart- 
ments, and  a  position  among  educational  institutions  recognized  by  scholars 
throughout  the  country.  His  rank  among  scholars,  his  acquaintance  with 
the  best  schools  of  this  country  and  Europe,  and  his  belief  in  this  school  and 
its  possibilities,  were  guarantees  of  its  worth  and  constantly  reflected  credit 
upon  its  name.  A  large  debt  of  gratitude  is  ever  due  to  him  from  the  Norwich 
Free  Academy. 

4.  It  is  not  proper  that  I  should  speak  here  today  as  I  would  like  of  him 
who  now  holds  the  office  of  principal,  Mr.  Henry  A.  Tirrell. 

With  these  principals  have  been  associated  a  long  list  of  faithful  teachers, 
who,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  have  given  their  best  work  to  the  school 
and  wrought  themselves  into  the  lives  of  the  pupils.  So  well  chosen  have 
many  of  these  been,  that  the  academy  has  proved  a  favorite  recruiting  station 
for  instructors  and  professors  for  many  of  our  colleges  and  universities. 

The  school  has  been  fortunate,  too,  in  its  scholars.  W^hile,  unlike  some 
academies  which  draw  their  pupils  from  a  wide  field  and  who  have  largely 
those  of  wealth  and  position,  we  draw  our  pupils  alsomst  exclusively  from 
the  immediate  neighborhood  and  offer  its  privileges  alike  to  rich  and  poor, 
yet  we  claim  for  the  academy  that  in  good  order,  in  the  development  of 
character,  in  training  for  life's  work,  in  actual  attainment,  the  graduates  here 
will  compare  favorably  with  any  school  in  the  land,  and  in  loyalty  no  high 
school  can  equal  it,  and  few  if  any  academies  surpass  it.  The  cabalistic 
"N.  F.  A."  inspires  many  a  heart  and  wins  everywhere  a  loud  acclaim. 

It  was  with  sublime  faith  that  the  founders  of  this  academy  entered  upon 
their  great  undertaking;  and  the  work  that  was  done  by  them,  the  extent 
of  the  grounds,  the  scale  of  the  building,  the  endowment  of  the  library,  indi- 
cated that  they  were  planning  for  a  large  future.  Nobly  has  their  confidence 
been  justified  and  sustained.  The  academy  has  always  held  a  high  place  in 
the  thought  and  affection  of  the  people  of  this  city.  Ministering  to  the  growth 
and  reputation  of  the  town,  it  has  been  the  constant  recipient  of  gifts  for  its 
enlargement  and  expansion.  Notable  among  these  was  the  gift  of  this  building 
with  its  Museum  of  Art,  unsurpassed  in  the  country  except  in  the  great  cities, 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  253 

and  the  creation  of  the  unique  and  excellent  Art  Department,  through  the 
filial  love,  the  loyalty  to  his  Alma  Mater  and  the  pride  in  native  place  of 
William  A.  Slater.  Besides  this,  the  bequests  of  Hon.  Jeremiah  Halsey,  of 
Hon.  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  W.  W.  Backus  and  of  Col.  Charles  A.  Converse, 
with  the  special  additions  of  $31,000  in  1867,  of  $50,000  in  1876,  made  by  many 
of  the  most  influential  citizens  of  Norwich,  and  of  $50,000  by  an  unnamed 
donor,  with  many  other  contributions  of  money,  scholarships,  prizes  and  col- 
lections, show  the  appreciation  in  which  it  has  always  been  held.  We  believe 
that  this  interest  does  not  flag,  and  that  the  committal  of  the  academy  in 
the  opening  address  of  1856  to  the  future  generations  for  their  support  will 
be  honored  by  the  residents  of  the  city  and  the  alumni  of  the  school,  and 
that  the  plans  for  enlargement  now  imperatively  demanded  by  the  success 
of  the  past  and  the  increasing  needs  of  the  present  will  meet  with  hearty 
response. 

I  close  with  the  words  of  Dr.  Gulliver  in  1886  at  the  dedication  of  the 
Slater  Memorial  Building.  He  said,  "I  close,  citizens  of  Norwich,  by  com- 
mending this  noble  school  to  your  love,  to  your  constant  care,  to  your  bene- 
factions, to  the  possession  of  your  estates  when  you  and  yours  have  ceased 
to  need  them,  and  to  your  prayers  for  that  Divine  blessing  in  which  the  insti- 
tution began  and  with  which  it  shall  continue  and  increase  until  in  the  holy 
words  oft  uttered  on  this  very  spot,  'she  sends  out  her  boughs  unto  the  sea 
and  her  branches  unto  the  river,  so  that  the  hills  are  covered  with  the  shadow 
of  it  and  the  branches  thereof  are  like  goodly  cedars.'  " 

The  foregoing  summary  by  Dr.  Pratt  takes  the  school  to  the  year  1906. 
Since  that  date  more  than  a  thousand  pupils  have  been  graduated,  making  a 
total  of  about  twenty-five  hundred.  More  than  twice  that  number  have 
attended  the  school  for  a  part  of  the  regular  four-year  course.  Although  the 
academy  is  a  local  school,  its  graduates  are  found  scattered  over  the  world, 
only  about  a  third  of  them  now  remaining  in  Norwich.  The  list  of  alumnae 
is  slightly  larger  than  the  alumni  list.  Among  the  names  are  many  honored 
for  success  in  the  professions,  and  many  more  who  have  become  useful  and 
influential  citizens  in  other  lines  of  work.  During  the  Civil  War  58  boys 
served  the  Union  when  the  school  numbered  not  more  than  85  boys.  In  the 
World  War  over  three  hundred  graduates  entered  the  service,  of  whom  eleven 
made  the  Supreme  Sacrifice. 

The  school  at  present  numbers  over  six  hundred,  and  ofTers  various 
academic  courses,  in  addition  to  special  courses  in  practical  arts  and  in  craft 
work.  In  its  Slater  Museum  and  Peck  Library  it  has  an  equipment  hardly 
equalled  in  any  other  secondary  school.  In  addition  to  its  valuable  plant, 
the  school  has  an  endowment  of  about  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars, 
the  income  of  which  is  available  for  the  various  needs  of  the  academy. 

BACON  ACADEMY 

The  following  narrative  of  this  famous  old  school  is  by  Mr.  Samuel  A. 
Willard,  of  Colchester : 

The  beginnings  of  Bacon  Academy  were  in  the  will  of  Pierpoint  Bacon, 
signed  April  17,  1800,  by  which  upon  Mr.  Bacon's  death,  December  30,  1800, 


254  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

his  estate,  inventoried  at  $35,000,  was  left  to  the  "Inhabitants  of  the  First 
Society  of  Colchester  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  and  maintaining  a  school 
in  said  First  Society  at  such  place  as  the  Inhabitants  of  said  First  Society 
shall  agree  upon  near  the  meeting  house  in  said  Society." 

The  largest  town  in  the  State  by  the  census  of  1800  was  Stonington, 
with  a  population  of  5,347.  Colchester  had  3,163,  of  which  perhaps  rather 
more  than  one-half  lived  in  the  "First  Society."  Mr.  Bacon's  gift  opened 
great  opportunities  to  this  small  community,  and  at  the  same  time  placed 
upon  it  grave  responsibilities.  The  first  problem  was  how  to  manage  the 
bequest,  which  was  largely  in  lands,  and  to  arrange  for  the  development  of 
the  school.  It  was  soon  evident  that  the  Society  meeting  was  not  the  place 
to  handle  this  business,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  secure  a  charter 
from  the  General  Assembly.  For  the  purposes  of  caring  for  and  administer- 
ing the  fund  and  carrying  on  the  school  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the 
will,  the  inhabitants  of  the  First  Society  were  incorporated  under  the  name 
of  the  Trustees  and  Proprietors  of  Bacon  Academy. 

There  were  two  unusual  features  in  this  charter  which  make  the  manage- 
ment of  the  school  unique.  They  are  well  worth  attention.  The  first  was  the 
composition  of  the  board  of  trustees.  There  were  to  be  twelve  trustees,  five 
of  whom  were  to  be  non-resident  in  said  Society,  and  by  the  charter  and 
subsequent  amendments  the  seven  resident  trustees  were  to  hold  ofSce  for  a 
term  of  four  years,  and  at  each  election  at  least  four  of  the  seven  must  be 
persons  who  had  served  during  the  previous  term.  The  second  provision  to 
be  noted  is  the  manner  in  which  the  trustees  were  to  be  chosen.  The  voters 
of  the  First  Society  in  public  meeting  duly  warned  were  to  nominate  the 
trustees;  these  nominations  were  to  be  sent  to  the  State  Senate;  the  Senate 
is  to  appoint  and  the  Governor  to  approve.  Some  machinery,  perhaps,  but 
the  procedure  gave  dignity  and  permanence  to  the  governing  body,  and  sep- 
arated the  school  from  petty  local  influence.  The  school  is  and  always  has 
been  a  free  public  school,  supported  by  endowment.  The  non-resident  trus- 
tees on  the  first  board  as  mentioned  in  the  charter  were  "His  Excellency 
Jonathan  Trumbull,  the  Honorable  Zepheniah  Swift,  the  Honorable  Roger 
Griswold,  General  Epaphroditus  Champion,  the  Reverend  Henry  Channing." 
The  resident  trustees  named  were  "The  Reverend  Salmon  Cone,  Colonel 
Daniel  Watrous,  Major  Roger  Bulkeley,  Joseph  Isham,  John  R.  Watrous, 
Asa  Bigelow  and  Ichabod  Lord  Skinner,"  all  men  of  affairs  and  representative 
citizens  of  Colchester.  This  all  shows  "that  men  eminent  for  their  services 
to  the  church  and  the  state  thought  it  not  beneath  them  to  manage  the  con- 
cerns and  direct  the  interests  of  the  school  founded  by  Mr.  Bacon's  bequest." 
It  has  been  of  great  assistance  to  the  school  that  a  part  of  the  board  was 
able  to  view  matters  detached  from  local  interests.  Some  of  the  other  non- 
resident trustees  during  these  intervening  years  have  been  Eliphalet  A.  Bulke- 
ley, first  president  of  the  Aetna  Life  Insurance  Company  of  Hartford;  Rev- 
erend Abel  McEwen,  of  New  London ;  William  A.  Buckingham,  Connecticut's 
War  Governor ;  Charles  J.  McCurdy,  lawyer,  of  Lyme ;  Morgan  G.  Bulkeley, 
another  Connecticut  governor ;  Charles  N.  Taintor,  president  of  the  United 
States   Savings  Bank  of  New  York  City;  Edwin  B.   Cragin,  M.D.,  of  New 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  255 

York;   Edward    M.    Day,   lawyer,    of    Hartford,   and    Michael    D.   O'Connell, 
lawyer,  and  judge  of  probate  in  Stafford  Springs. 

With  the  organization  complete,  the  next  important  factor  in  determining 
the  success  of  the  school  was  the  principal,  who  must  by  his  scholarship  and 
personality  interest,  enthuse,  develop  and  direct  the  youth  committed  to  his 
charge.  The  first  principal  was  John  Adams,  Yale  1795,  and  a  teacher  of 
successful  experience.  The  choice  was  a  most  fortunate  one,  and  the  school 
at  once  took  foremost  rank.  Two  months  after  the  school  was  opened,  206 
students  were  enrolled,  of  whom  63  were  from  out  of  town.  Mr.  Adams  left 
in  1810  to  accept  the  principalship  of  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Massa- 
chusetts. Able  successors  followed  him,  and  the  school  continued  to  grow  in 
numbers  until  in  1835-36  the  enrollment  was  over  400,  including  125  "scholars 
from  abroad."  The  following  year  the  attendance  probably  reached  high 
water  mark.  The  catalogue  contains  the  names  of  425  scholars,  137  of  whom 
were  from  out  of  town,  and  32  of  these  were  from  out  of  the  State.  It  must 
have  been  a  problem  to  accommodate  all  these  pupils  in  a  village  which  at 
that  time  had  a  population  of  only  about  1,200  .  "To  accommodate  these 
students  or  their  families,  almost  every  family  of  the  village  rented  a  part  of 
the  house  or  took  boarders."  Gradually  high  schools  were  started  in  other 
towns,  and  the  out-of-town  attendance  fell  off,  but  the  school  maintains  its 
high  standard,  fitting  for  college,  and  also  making  special  effort  to  adapt 
itself  to  the  community  needs. 

There  have  been  some  thirty-five  different  principals  since  the  school 
opened.  All  but  two  or  three  were  college  graduates,  and  twenty-two  were 
graduated  from  Yale.  Several  of  the  earlier  masters  had  served  as  tutors 
there.  They  were  a  fine  body  of  men,  and  their  influence  and  example  were 
an  inspiration  to  many  a  Colchester  youth  and  led  him  to  continue  his  studies 
beyond  the  high  school.  There  are  no  statistics  extant  of  the  number  who 
went  from  the  academy  to  college  during  the  first  seventy  years.  One  who 
had  given  some  time  to  looking  this  up  has  a  list  of  seventy-five  Bacon 
Academy  students  who  had  graduated  from  colleges  before  1870.  Since  Mr. 
Burnette  became  principal  in  1869  up  to  the  present,  about  sixty-five  of  the 
graduates  have  completed  a  course  in  some  college  or  university,  and  some 
twenty  others  have  entered  but  were  compelled  to  withdraw  before  finishing 
the  course  on  account  of  ill  health  or  lack  of  funds.  Last  year  there  were 
eighteen  graduates  from  the  school  continuing  their  studies  in  higher  insti- 
tutions of  learning.  The  enrollment  of  the  school  for  the  last  few  years  has 
been  about  eighty-five. 

The  original  endowment  has  been  increased  by  gifts  from  Asa  Otis,  S. 
Lewis  Gillette,  Judah  Lord  Taintor,  Lewis  E.  Stanton,  Charles  E.  Jones, 
James  F.  Cutler,  Hamilton  Wallis,  Charles  N.  Taintor,  and  a  fund  of  $10,000 
given  at  the  Centennial  by  the  alumni.    The  present  fund  is  about  $roo,ooo. 

The  list  of  men  and  women  who  have  received  a  part  of  their  prep- 
aration for  life  work  in  the  academy  is  a  long  one.  A  few  may  be  mentioned 
without  reference  to  the  chronological  order  of  their  attendance  at  the  school : 

Morrison  R.  Waite,  chief  justice  U.  S.  Supreme  Court;  Lyman  Trumbull, 
U.  S.  senator  from  Illinois;  John  T.  Wait,  lawyer  and  member  of  Congress, 


256  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Norwich;  George  Champion,  missionarj'  to  Zululand,  Africa;  David  Trum- 
bull and  James  Trumbull,  who  lived  for  years  in  Chili,  South  America;  Wil- 
liam Larrabee,  governor  of  Iowa ;  Joseph  Selden,  editor,  East  Haddam ;  Wil- 
liam A.  Buckingham,  governor  of  Connecticut;  Elisha  Palmer,  James  D. 
Mowry.  Lewis  A.  Hyde.  Welcome  A.  Smith,  Norwich;  Charles  Wetmore, 
M.D.,  missionary  physician  in  Sandwich  Islands;  Rev.  James  T.  Hyde,  D.D., 
professor  in  Chicago  Theological  Seminary ;  Lewis  E.  Stanton,  lawyer,  Hart- 
ford:  Silas  A.  Robinson,  judge  of  Connecticut  Supreme  Court,  Middletown; 
Rev.  Ezra  H.  Gillett,  D.D.,  professor  in  New  York  University;  John  E. 
Gillette.  Catskill  Station,  New  York;  Ralph  Smith  Taintor,  Saybrook ;  Charles 
N.  Taintor,  president  United  States  Savings  Bank,  New  York  City ;  James 
U.  Taintor,  secretary  Orient  Fire  Ins.  Co.,  Hartford;  Judah  Lord  Taintor, 
publisher.  New  York  City ;  John  E.  LeffingAvell,  president  Farragut  Ins.  Co., 
New  York  City;  Edward  Shefifield  Bartholomew,  sculptor,  Hartford;  Harriet 
Trumbull  (Mrs.  George  J.  Brush),  New  Haven;  Catherine  Olmstead  (Mrs. 
Erastus  S.  Day),  Colchester;  Sebastian  Lawrence,  banker,  New  London; 
S.  Lewis  Gillette,  business,  Boston,  Massachusetts ;  James  S.  Foote,  IM.D., 
professor  Creighton  Medical  College,  Omaha,  Nebraska;  Charles  W.  Haines, 
lawyer,  Colorado  Springs ;  Rev.  Curtis  M.  Geer,  Hartford  Theological  Sem- 
inar3%-  Frank  D.  Haines,  Portland,  judge  Superior  Court.  Connecticut;  Park 
Beniamin,  journalist.  New  York  City;  Henry  C.  Demming,  Hartford;  Henry 
W.  Bigelow.  manufacturer,  Boston ;  Henry  Marsh,  California ;  Rev.  Charles 
N.  Ransom,  missionary,  South  Africa ;  John  T.  Swift,  professor  University, 
Tokyo,  Japan  ;  Rev.  Florence  O'Shea,  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania ;  Rev.  Michael 
Sullivan.  LL.D.,  Hartford ;  Rev.  Eugene  Sullivan,  Portchester,  New  York ; 
Rev.  Timothv  Sullivan,  East  Hartford ;  Edward  M.  Day,  lawyer.  Hartford ; 
Eliphalet  A.  Bulkeley,  first  president  Aetna  Life  Ins.  Co.,  Hartford ;  Morgan 
G.  Bulkeley,  governor  of  Connecticut,  Hartford ;  Theron  Clark,  registrar 
Brown  University,  Providence ;  Edwin  B.  Cragin,  eminent  surgeon  and  pro- 
fessor. College  of  Phj'sicians  and  Surgeons,  New  York  Cit}' ;  Michael  D. 
O'Connell,  judge  of  probate,  Stafford  Springs;  Rev.  James  T.  Champlin, 
president  Colby  College,  Maine ;  Charles  Brand,  lieutenant-commander  U.  S. 
Navy;  John  W.  Brand,  treasurer  Institution  for  Savings.  Springfield.  Massa- 
chusetts; Martin  Shugrue,  assistant  professor.  ^Massachusetts  Institute  Tech- 
nology-, Boston;  Almira  Lathrop  (Mrs.  -Solomon  T.  Swift),  Colchester;  David 
S.  Day.  lawyer,  Bridgeport;  Mary  R.  Willard  (Mrs.  Edwin  B.  Cragin),  New 
York  City;  Margaret  Weeks  (Mrs.  J.  L.  Shipley),  Springfield;  Leonore  Bart- 
lett  (Airs.  B.  F.  Parsons).  Georgia;  Caroline  Swift  (Mrs.  D.  W.  Willard), 
California;  Lewis  E.  Sparrowe,  investment  broker.  New  York  City;  Thomas 
S.  O'Connell,  AI.D.,  East  Hartford;  Richard  T.  O'Connell,  judge  of  probate, 
East  Hartford  ;  Rev.  William  B.  Sprague.  LL.D..  noted  divine,  Albanv,  New 
York ;  Rev.  Nathaniel  Hewitt,  D.D.,  Bridgeport ;  Frederick  W.  Lord',  M.D., 
member  of  Congress,  Greenport,  L.  I. ;  W.  Henry  Foote,  Romney,  Va. ;  Rev. 
E.  Goodrich  Smith,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Samuel  A.  Bridges,  member  of  Con- 
.gress,  Allentown,  Pennsylvania ;  Charles  J.  McCurdy,  lawyer.  Lyme ;  David 
H.  Raymond,  judge  in  Indiana  when  it  was  a  territory ;  James  Ra\-mond, 
Westminster.  Maryland  ;  Henry  M.  Waite.  chief  justice  Supreme  Court  Con- 
necticut;  Samuel  A.  Talbot,  attorney-general.  New  York  State;  Ebenezer 
Jackson,  member  of  Congress,  Middletown;  Charles  J.  McCurdy,  lawyer, 
Lyme ;  Charles  J.  Watrous,  U.  S.  District  Judge,  Texas. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  hundreds  who  have  had  a  share  in  the  benefits 
of  Mr.  Bacon's  gift  to  Colchester.    How  much  such  a  legacy  means  to  a  place 

so  small  that  otherwise  it  would  not  have  had  a  high  school !    The  following 
taken  from  a  letter  written  by  the  Honorable  Samuel  A.  Bridges  in  August, 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  257 

1853,    acknowledging   an    invitation    to    attend    the    Semi-Centennial    of    the 
Academy,  indicates  the  way  a  non-resident  pupil  regarded  the  matter : 

By  it  they  (the  citizens  of  Colchester)  have  been  elevated  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  privileges  far  above  many  of  their  neighbors.  To  them  the  name 
of  "Bacon"  has  given  a  distinction  of  which  others  would  like  to  boast. 
Through  his  bountiful  munificence  the  elder  portion  of  them  have  lived  to 
see  their  children  first  taught  in  his  academic  halls  elevated  to  the  pulpit,  the 
bar,  and  the  bench.  How  many  important  influences  at  the  expiration  of  the 
half  century  radiate  from  that  grand  center!  This  is  no  less  true  now  that 
117  years  have  passed.  The  original  gift  supplemented  during  the  last 
twenty  years  by  the  generosity  of  other  friends  does  not  in  any  way  relieve 
the  town  in  its  support  of  schools,  but  provides  opportunities  for  the  educa- 
tion beyond  the  graded  schools,  for  community  work  and  for  Americaniza- 
tion work  beyond  the  usual  lot  of  small  communities. 

THE  BULKELEY  SCHOOL,  NEW  LONDON 

The  following  account  of  the  Bulkeley  School  has  been  prepared  by  its 
principal,  Mr.  Walter  A.  Towne. 

The  founder  of  this  school  was  Leonard  Hallam  Bulkeley.  Mr.  Bulkeley 
was  a  descendant  of  Rev.  Gershom  Bulkeley,  the  second  minister  of  the 
Colonial  church,  and  a  son  of  Captain  Charles  Bulkeley,  who  was  associated 
with  John  Paul  Jones,  who  in  command  of  the  "Bonhomme  Richard"  harried 
English  commerce  so  efifectively  during  the  war  for  American  Independence. 
One  is  rather  safe  in  saying,  consequently,  that  the  foundation  fund  of  the 
school  had  its  beginning  in  the  prize  moneys  of  these  gallant  but  precarious 
adventures. 

Mr.  Bulkeley  was  a  merchant  of  modest  pretensions,  whose  place  of 
business  was  very  near  the  school  which  now  bears  his  name.  He  was  born 
December  22,  1799,  and  died  December  19,  1849.  He  left  an  estate  valued  at 
something  less  than  $25,000  to  found  a  secondary  school  which  should  be 
free  to  boys  of  New  London.  In  his  will  he  provided  that  the  funds  should 
be  kept  intact  until  the  trustees,  who  were  named  in  the  will,  should  decide 
that  they  were  justified  in  the  erection  of  the  schoolhouse. 

There  were  five  trustees  named  by  Mr.  Bulkeley,  viz. :  John  P.  C.  Mather, 
Nathan  Belcher,  Henry  P.  Haven,  William  C.  Crump,  and  N.  Shaw  Perkins, 
who  served  continuously  until  his  death  in  1905.  This  official  board  decided 
in  1870  that  the  estate  had  increased  so  considerably  in  its  careful  manage- 
ment that  they  were  justified  in  beginning  operations.  Accordingly,  plans 
were  secured  from  the  famous  architect,  Mr.  Eidlitz,  and  upon  a  lot  presented 
to  them  by  the  city  they  erected  a  very  substantial  and  attractive  building. 
How  little  they  anticipated  the  growth  of  the  city  may  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that  the  school  provided  seating  capacity  for  only  forty-two  boys  in  the 
main  study  hall. 

The  school  was  opened  in  September,  1873,  for  the  admission  of  boys, 
under  the  direction  of  Eugene  B.  Collester  as  principal,  who  had  graduated 
from  Amherst  College  the  preceding  June.  Mr.  Collester  resigned  in  1880, 
and  afterwards  lived  in  Minnesota.     The  next  principal   of  the  school  was 

N.I/.— 1-17 


258  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Ely  R.  Hall,  Yale  '72,  and  previously  a  teacher  in  Hopkins  Grammar  School. 
Mr.  Hall  remained  in  charge  of  the  school  until  1888,  when  he  moved  to 
Woodstock,  Connecticut,  and  was  principal  of  the  academy  of  that  town 
until  his  death  in  1920.  The  conduct  of  the  school  was  then  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  writer,  who  has  remained  in  charge  until  the  present  (1921). 

The  ordinary  custom  of  secondary  schools  in  having  a  curriculum  of  four 
years  leading  to  graduation  was  followed  until  1884,  when  the  course  was 
changed  to  one  of  three  years,  with  the  privilege  of  an  additional  year  for 
boys  desiring  to  enter  college.  This  plan  was  followed  until  1910,  when  the 
school  restored  its  original  plan  of  a  course  extending  through  four  years. 

Bulkeley  School  is  the  successor  of  the  New  London  Grammar  School, 
established  in  1713,  and  maintained  jointly  by  the  town  and  the  income  of  a 
gift  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  given  by  Robert  Bartlett,  who 
died  in  1676.  Nathan  Hale  was  one  of  the  masters  of  this  school,  which  was 
discontinued  in  1873  and  the  Robert  Bartlett  foundation  was  given  to  the 
trustees  of  Bulkeley  School.  The  funds  of  the  school  have  been  enhanced 
by  various  legacies  and  gifts,  notably  from  Asa  Otis,  Henry  P.  Haven,  and 
George  F.  Tinker.  , 

The  building  was  very  much  enlarged  since  1873,  and  now  accommodates 
about  two  hundred  boys.  The  graduates  number  about  850,  of  whom  275 
have  entered  college  or  other  institutions  of  higher  learning.  Many  of  the 
graduates  have  attained  eminence  in  public  life.  At  the  present  time  the 
school  has  a  graduate  in  both  houses  of  the  National  Congress  as  well  as  in 
the  Connecticut  Legislature.  They  are  found  in  the  faculties  of  the  United 
States  Military  and  Naval  Academies  and  various  colleges.  About  two 
hundred  were  engaged  in  the  activities  of  the  recent  European  war. 

The  foregoing  facts  constitute  the  visible  history  of  Bulkeley  School,  but 
its  real  history  and  the  apology  for  its  foundation  are  to  be  found,  like  those 
of  every  school,  in  the  lives  of  those  who  have  come  within  its  influence,  and 
will  never  be  known  until  the  day  when  all  things  shall  be  revealed  and  we 
shall  see  each  other  face  to  face. 

WILLIAMS  MEMORIAL  INSTITUTE 
Mr.  Colin  S.  Buell,  principal,  gives  the  following  account  of  this  school. 

The  Williams  Memorial  Institute  is  a  secondary  school  for  girls,  founded 
'^y  Mrs.  Harriet  Peck  Williams,  of  Norwich,  Conn.,  as  a  memorial  to  her  son, 
Thomas  W.  Williams,  2d,  a  whaling  merchant  of  New  London.  Mr.  Wil- 
liams died  suddenly  in  1855,  leaving  the  bulk  of  this  property  to  his  mother. 
One  parcel  of  this  property  was  a  lot  on  which  he  had  planned  to  build  a 
house.  The  mother  decided  to  give  this  lot  and  the  funds  left  her  by  her 
son  to  found  a  school. 

The  school  was  opened  in  September,  1891,  with  about  100  pupils,  taken 
over  from  the  "Young  Ladies'  High  School,"  a  public  school  of  the  city  of 
New  London.  In  order  to  make  the  school  free  to  the  girls  of  New  London, 
the  city  agreed  to  pay  the  nominal  fee  charged  to  all  girls. 

As  the  years  went  by  the  school  increased  in  numbers  beyond  all  expecta- 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  259 

tion.  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  Vocational  School  was  founded  and  flourished 
greatly.     The  number  of  girls  at  present  enrolled  is  about  325. 

The  graduates  of  the  school  number  about  1,100,  and  are  scattered  over 
the  world.  Over  50  per  cent,  of  them  are,  or  have  been  at  some  time,  teachers. 
Many  of  them  have  attended  the  leading  colleges,  and  have  won  the  highest 
honors.  Some  are  nov/  professors  in  colleges  of  America  and  of  foreign  lands. 
The  majority  of  the  alumnae  are,  at  the  present  time,  occupying  the  places 
which  are  the  natural  heritage  of  women — wives  and  mothers. 

In  1917  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  bought  the  property  adjoining 
that  of  the  institute  and  presented  it  to  the  school.  The  property  now  con- 
sists of  about  six  acres  of  land  in  the  city,  with  two  large  buildings,  green- 
houses, etc.,  tennis  courts,  out-door  basketball  court  and  room  for  sports  of 
various  kinds.  From  the  very  beginning  the  school  has  insisted  on  physical 
training.  A  teacher  has  been  in  charge  of  the  gymnasium,  and  all  girls  go  to 
work  there  twice  a  week. 

NEW  LONDON  VOCATIONAL  HIGH  SCHOOL 
The  following  is  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  F.  S.  Hitchcock,  principal. 

The  origin  of  this  school  dates  back  to  the  early  boyhood  of  its  founder, 
Mr.  William  H.  Chapman,  and  represents  a  plan  on  his  part,  not  necessarily 
to  lessen  labor,  for  he  believed  in  work,  but  to  enable  young  men  and  women 
to  attack  the  problems  of  life  with  intelligence,  with  a  love  of  industry  and 
skill,  and  with  a  greater  certainty  of  achievement  worthy  of  their  best  efforts. 

William  Henry  Chapman  was  born  April  8th,  1819,  in  East  Haddara, 
Middlesex  county,  Connecticut,  and  traces  his  ancestry  from  Robert  Chap- 
man, a  native  of  Hull,  England,  who  came  to  America  in  1633  and  settled 
in  Saybrook,  Connecticut.  Another  ancestor,  Sir  John  Chapman,  was  at  one 
time  Lord  Mayor  of  London.  Mr.  Chapman  spent  his  youth  in  the  country. 
As  a  boy  he  was  normally  healthy  but  not  vigorous.  He  was  fond  of  reading 
and  inclined  to  seek  seclusion  to  gratify  this  taste.  From  biographies  of 
business  men  he  gained  help  for  his  personal  plans  and  problems.  He  was 
educated  in  the  public  and  private  schools  of  his  native  town  and  in  Bacon 
Academy,  Colchester,  Connecticut.     He  keenly  enjoyed  historical  literature. 

In  1837  Mr.  Chapman  began  as  a  clerk  in  a  drygoods  store  in  New 
London,  which  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  successful  business 
career.  He  was  president  of  the  Union  Bank  (chartered  1792)  for  forty-six 
years,  and  was  president  of  the  Savings  Bank  of  New  London  from  1866 
until  the  time  of  his  death  in  February,  1912.  From  1875  until  February, 
1912,  he  was  a  deacon  in  the  Second  Congregational  Church  of  New  London, 
and  active  in  religious  work.  During  the  Civil  War  he  was  town  treasurer 
of  New  London,  and  throughout  his  life  his  ecclesiastical,  educational  and 
financial  interests  led  to  active  participation  in  constructive  service  to  the  city. 

About  1885  Mr.  Chapman  began  to  take  interest  in  public  education,  and 
from  reading  and  observation  came  to  believe  the  culture  and  training  which 
characterized  the  instruction  of  his  youth  should  be  supplemented  by  courses 
in  the  productive  activities  of  life.    About  1891  the  annual  reports  of  Charles 


26o  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

B.  Jennings,  acting  superintendent  of  New  London  schools,  began  to  contain 
a  plea  for  the  introduction  of  industrial  arts  into  the  public  schools.  Manual 
training,  mechanical  arts  and  trades  schools  were  being  advocated  and  estab- 
lished throughout  the  country,  and  in  1901  Mr.  Chapman  decided  to  give 
$100,000  for  a  building  and  equipment  to  furnish  instruction  to  girls  in  dress- 
making, millinery,  domestic  science  and  home  economics;  to  boys,  the  tools, 
appliances  and  machinery  for  training  in  handicrafts  by  which  all  might  be 
helped  in  obtaining  a  livelihood.  The  intention  was  to  present  to  the  city 
the  facilities  for  teaching  the  domestic  and  industrial  arts,  but  the  cost  of 
maintenance  was  a  problem,  and  he  later  contributed  securities  of  a  par  value 
amounting  to  another  $100,000  to  make  it  possible  to  start  the  institution. 
To  safeguard  the  investment  and  to  insure  the  carrying  out  of  his  idea,  he 
secured  from  the  Legislature  articles  of  incorporation  which  were  approved 
May  nth,  1903.  Section  i  reads:  "Resolved  by  this  Assembly,  that  Walter 
Learned,  Alfred  Coit,  Charles  B.  Jennings,  James  Hislop,  George  Whittlesey, 
Frederick  S.  Newcomb,  Lucius  E.  Whiton  and  George  H.  Holmes,  all  of  the 
city  of  New  London,  together  with  such  other  persons  as  may  hereafter 
become  associated  with  them  and  their  successors,  be  and  they  are  hereby 
constituted  a  body  politic  and  corporate  by  the  name  of  The  Manual  Training 
and  Industrial  School  of  New  London.  The  mayor  of  the  city  of  New  London 
and  the  president  and  secretary  of  the  board  of  School  Visitors  of  the  city 
shall  be  ex-ofificio  members  of  the  corporation."  At  that  date  Hon.  B.  F. 
Mahan  was  mayor,  Dr.  John  G.  Stanton  was  chairman,  and  Mr.  Carlos 
Barry  secretary,  of  the  Board  of  School  Visitors  of  New  London. 

The  establishment  of  an  institution  of  this  type  proved  to  be  a  task  for 
the  board  of  trustees  involving  thought,  correspondence,  visitation  and  dish 
cussion  which  required  time.  The  original  building  was  far  enough  completed 
to  be  used  in  the  fall  of  1906,  and  the  school  opened  October  ist  of  that  year. 

The  responsibility  of  equipment  and  organization  of  the  school  was  vested 
in  Frederick  St.  John  Hitchcock  under  the  title  of  principal.  He  was  born 
in  Westfield,  Massachusetts,  August  ist,  1865,  of  English  ancestry,  educated 
in  New  England  public  schools  and  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology. He  had  eighteen  years  of  experience  in  teaching  in  high  schools  and 
technical  branches  before  coming  to  New  London.  From  this  preparation  and 
experience,  and  by  conference  with  the  founder  of  the  school  and  its  board  of 
trustees,  the  present  institution  was  developed. 

The  experience  of  other  institutions  was  constantly  kept  in  mind,  and  by 
inspection  or  correspondence  the  activities  of  technical  and  vocational  schools 
elsewhere,  were  helpful  in  these  early  days.  The  Massachuestts  Institute  of 
Technology,  Mechanic  Arts  High  School  in  Boston,  the  Rindge  College, 
Manhattan  Trade  School,  Flebrew  Technical  Institute  of  New  York,  Pratt 
Institute  of  Brooklyn,  the  Williamson  Free  School  and  Drexel  Institute  in 
Philadelphia,  Hampton  Institute,  Virginia,  and  Georgia  Technical  Institute, 
were  visited  and  studied  for  ideas.  A  committee  of  manufacturers,  mechanics 
and  individual  educators  and  teachers  from  New  England  and  New  York  was 
formed  for  advice  and  suggestions.  The  conclusion  reached  was  that  a  course 
should  be  planned  for  no  special  class  or  group,  but  for  normal  youth,  age 


EDUCATIOXAL  INSTITUTIONS  261 

about  fourteen,  with  the  first  eight  grades  of  the  public  schools  completed  or 
equivalent  preparation,  as  an  entrance  requirement.  Students  with  less 
schooling  on  account  of  poor  opportunity,  but  with  maturity  of  mind  and 
body  fitting  them  for  "catching  up"  and  pursuing  the  course  without  being 
a  drawback  to  their  associates,  to  be  admitted  on  six  weeks'  probation. 

In  mechanical  arts  and  trades  the  fundamental  principles  were  sought  by 
analysis,  only  as  much  taught  in  a  day  as  could  be  received  with  keen  in- 
terest;  the  amount  of  information  and  skill  in  each  subject  to  be  compre- 
hensive enough  to  be  of  practical  use.  "Manual  training"  does  not  reside  in 
the  hand,  but  principally  in  the  brain  and  in  the  mind,"  and  "First  think  out 
your  work,  then  work  out  your  thought,"  two  quotations  from  Dr.  C.  M. 
Woodward,  represented  the  angle  by  which  technical  skill  was  approached. 

The  age  of  eighteen  was  decided  upon  as  a  desirable  average  for  gradua- 
tion, to  give  time  for  development  of  body,  mind  and  character  through  a 
four  years  course.  That  the  substantial  development  of  skill  in  mechanical 
arts  might  lead  to  further  interest  and  opportunity,  the  related  mathematics, 
science  and  social  and  political  history  were  included  in  the  course  of  study. 
One  year  of  civics  and  four  of  English  gave  a  base,  from  which  English  litera- 
ture and  social  and  political  duties  and  problems  could  be  taught  or  discussed. 
After  the  third  year,  a  group  of  students  observing  that  at  graduation  a 
career  in  the  industries  would  have  greater  opportunity  for  them  if  their 
education  was  continued  in  a  technical  college,  a  request  came  for  language 
enough  to  pass  entrance  examinations.  This  was  given  out  of  school  hours 
for  a  period  of  five  years,  and  finally  was  added  to  the  regular  schedule  of  the 
school. 

After  the  first  year  all  machinery  and  equipment  of  the  school  was  in- 
stalled by  students,  and  after  the  third  year  all  repairs  to  machinery  were 
part  of  the  regular  instruction.  Practically  all  small  tools  within  the  scope 
of  the  equipment  have  been  made  by  students  from  the  beginning. 

The  four  years  course  in  general  woodwork,  pattern  making,  draughting, 
tool  forging  and  machine  shop  experience,  combined  with  English,  civics, 
history,  mathematics,  sciences  and  modern  languages,  has  placed  the  young 
men  who  have  graduated  as  follows :  "^J  per  cent,  in  the  trades  or  vocations 
taught  in  the  school,  12  per  cent,  went  to  college,  and  11  per  cent,  are  at  work 
in  other  occupations. 

Of  the  girls  who  have  completed  the  four-year  domestic  art  and  science 
courses,  together  with  English,  civics,  history,  literature,  mathematics,  sci- 
ences and  m.odern  languages,  64  per  cent,  are  employed  at  vocations  or  teach- 
ing the  branches  studied  in  the  school,  24  per  cent,  continued  their  education 
in  summer  schools  or  b\'  going  to  college,  and  12  per  cent,  who  attended  espe- 
cially with  reference  to  the  efficiency,  independence  and  contentment  afforded, 
have  taken  a  measure  of  those  attributes  into  their  homes. 

The  skill  and  earning  capacity  of  graduates  leads  a  large  percentage  of 
them  to  take  up  work  immediately  in  the  productive  vocations ;  but  the  scope 
and  thoroughness  of  the  academic  courses  maintained  enables  students  of 
good  scholarship  to  enter  colleges,  either  by  examination  or  by  certificate.  A 
fair  percentage  of  the  young  men  have  been  accepted  in  colleges  and  technical 


202  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

schools  and  more  are  planning  to  continue  their  education  in  that  way. 

Considerable  difficulty  in  obtaining  teachers  has  been  experienced  from 
the  first.  Competent  instructors  in  the  trades  could  make  more  money  in  the 
industries  than  as  teachers.  Those  at  the  heads  of  departments  teach  because 
they  enjoy  the  life  and  service.  The  dressmaking,  ladies'  tailoring  and  milli- 
nery are  carried  to  a  degree  of  skill  and  excellence  seldom  found  outside  the 
trades.  The  analysis  of  the  work  may  be  copied  by  anyone,  but  the  morale 
and  efficiency  of  the  department  of  domestic  art  has  attracted  some  notice 
outside  New  England.  A  superintendent  from  the  Middle  West  visited  the 
school  some  years  ago,  and  spent  the  day  in  copying  details  of  the  course  in 
domestic  art.  Upon  leaving  he  expressed  his  thanks  for  information  obtained 
and  stated :  "That  is  just  what  we  want  in  our  city ;  one  matter  troubles  me, 
however;  that  is  teachers.  Where  do  you  get  yours?"  Answer:  "We  gen- 
erally make  our  own."  "Well,  but  j'ou  had  to  start  somewhere.  What  do 
you  have  to  pay  a  woman  like  the  head  of  that  department?"  Answer:  "That 
is  a  somewhat  embarrassing  question."  "There  is  no  secret  about  it  is  there?" 
Answer :  "No !"  "But  you  would  not  stand  in  the  way  of  her  advancement, 
would  you?  We  could  offer  much  more  than  that."  Answer:  "Well,  if  you 
are  going  to  ask  her  to  leave  here,  perhaps  you  ought  to  be  told  more  about 
her."  "Is  there  any  'out'*  about  her?"  Answer:  "Not  that  we  know  of,  except 
that  she  married  the  principal  about  eighteen  years  ago,  and  they  are  edu- 
cating their  own  children  here."  The  practical  tailoring,  millinery  and  art 
needlework  have  closely  approached  professional  excellence  from  the  begin- 
ning, due  in  part  to  the  technical  accuracy  sought,  but  due  more  to  the  per- 
sonality and  example  of  motherly  refinement,  dignity  and  efficiency  of  the 
teacher  matron  of  the  domestic  art  department,  Mrs.  E.  L.  Cheney  Hitchcock. 

In  the  shops  and  laboratories  as  well  as  in  the  tailoring  rooms,  competent 
heads  of  departments  have  extended  their  work  by  employing  graduates  of 
the  school  as  assistants.  Mutual  helpfulness  carried  through  the  four  years 
of  study  and  practice  has  developed  a  constant  supply  of  those  who  want  to 
teach  as  a  vocation.  The  most  skillful  have  been  glad  to  get  experience  for 
moderate  wages  under  their  old  instructors,  and  the  school  profits  by  their 
eagerness  to  earn  a  recommendation  to  superintendents  seeking  teachers 
skilled  and  experienced  in  mechanical  arts. 

The  very  practical  work  of  the  students  has  brought  appeals  for  extend- 
ing the  work  to  smaller  groups  in  grade  schools  and  social  service  centers. 
Senior  boys  have  taught  mechanical  drawing  and  general  woodwork  in  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Mystic  Oral  School  and  Montville.  Senior  girls  have  conducted 
classes  in  cooking  or  dressmaking  in  Mystic  Oral  School,  Montville,  and  in 
the  social  service  centers  of  New  London.  The  work  in  Montville  was  started 
under  the  auspices  of  Mrs.  Frederick  A.  Johnson,  and  has  been  instrumental 
in  directing  many  toward  a  full  four  years  high  school  course  which  later  on 
they  completed.  Most  of  the  extension  work  carried  on  by  students  was  done 
evenings,  on  Saturdays,  or  during  vacations.  The  immediate  benefits  have 
usually  been  followed  by  increased  attendance  at  the  Vocational  High  School. 

Throughout  the  early  years  of  the  school  the  problem  of  maintenance 

*  "Out,"  a  colloquialism  meaning  any  weakness. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  263 

was  serious.  The  intention  of  the  donor  was  to  furnish  buildings  and  equip- 
ment for  practical  instruction  to  youth  of  high  school  age,  but  the  costs  of 
materials,  teachers,  etc.,  were  expected  to  be  borne  by  the  city  or  by  the  pay- 
ment of  tuition.  New  London  started  by  paying  $500  per  }ear,  and  when  the 
amount  some  years  later  had  advanced  to  $700  an  effort  was  made  to  get  aid 
from  the  State.  The  basis  of  approval  by  the  State  included  forty-eight  weeks 
of  school  of  eight  hours  per  day,  per  year,  consisting  of  50  per  cent,  academic 
and  50  per  cent,  shop  work,  each  student  confined  to  one  trade  which  must 
be  followed  to  completion. 

Ordinarily,  85  per  cent,  of  the  vocational  students  have  to  earn  a  part 
or  all  of  the  cost  of  their  education  out  of  school  hours.  The  longer  day  and 
longer  school  year  would  have  made  attendance  impossible  for  a  large  num- 
ber. Four  hours  academic  work  as  taught  in  other  high  schools  would  have 
been  acceptable,  but  in  practice  the  subjects  required  failed  to  include  those 
which  form  a  basis  for  culture  and  make  the  way  open  to  further  training 
after  graduation.  No  parents  would  consent  to  that  plan.  Neither  would 
they  consent  to  deciding  upon  one  trade  for  children  at  the  age  of  fourteen. 
Another  factor  leading  to  the  abandonment  of  State  aid  was  the  cost  of 
equipment  and  teachers  for  the  long  hours  of  shop  work  required.  No 
reduction  of  expense  would  result  for  the  city,  but  a  large  reduction  in 
attendance  would  follow.  The  four  years  technical  high  school  course  was 
continued  free  to  resident  students  and  paid  for  by  the  city.  Non-resident 
students  met  the  increased  costs  by  an  advance  in  tuition.  The  struggle  for 
support  doubtless  had  a  tendency  to  increase  the  attendance  and  advance  the 
standards  of  the  school.  The  threatened  loss  of  all  cultural  training  developed 
an  appreciation  of  it,  and  English  history,  civics  and  general  science  received 
an  impetus  which  sent  an  unusual  number  of  graduates  on  to  technical 
schools  and  colleges.  One  effect  of  the  stimulated  interest  in  English  was 
the  success  of  students  in  competition  with  other  schools  for  literary  prizes. 
A  second  prize  of  ten  dollars  offered  by  the  Colonial  Dames  of  America  was 
awarded  to  Samuel  Bittner,  a  junior  in  1918.  The  Connecticut  gold  medal 
together  with  fifty  dollars  in  gold  from  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution 
was  awarded  to  Louise  Ernst,  a  sophomore  in  191 5. 

In  connection  with  the  English  and  history  classes,  the  school  has  given 
several  plays  each  year  v.-hich  at  first  were  staged  in  the  history  room  of  the 
school.  The  seating  capacity  soon  proved  to  be  inadequate,  and  the  Lyceum 
Theater  was  used  for  "Higby  of  Harvard"  in  1912.  In  1914,  through  the 
bequest  of  $28,000  under  the  will  of  Mrs.  Ellen  Tyler  Chapman,  wife  of  the 
founder  of  the  school,  a  fine  auditorium  was  added  to  the  building.  A  series 
of  debates,  prize  speaking  and  plays  became  part  of  the  student  activity  each 
year.  "Mice  and  Men,"  "The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth,"  "Little  Lord  Faunt- 
leroy"  and  the  "Birds'  Christmas  Carol"  were  enthusiastically  supported  by 
students  and  the  public.  The  profit  from  the  plays  so  far  exceeded  the  expense 
that  valuable  pictures  and  many  articles  of  furnishing  and  equipment  were 
added  to  the  institution.  The  school  glee  club  and  orchestra  formed  a  begin- 
ning from  which  a  general  public  interest  in  good  music  has  grown.  Musi- 
cians of  national  reputation  and  accepted  merit  have  found  the  acoustic  prop- 


264  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

erties  of  the  school  auditorium  to  be  excellent.  The  audiences  have  been  large 
and  appreciative.  Much  of  the  achievement  in  dramatics  and  musical  work 
is  due  to  the  talent  and  energy  of  Miss  Eva  M.  Sherburne,  teacher  of  English 
in  the  school. 

In  191 1,  when  the  Hartford  Graduate  Club,  represented  by  Mrs.  E.  V. 
Mitchell,  Miss  Mary  Partridge,  and   Miss  Elizabeth  Wright,  came  to  New 
London  looking  for  a  site  for  the  Connecticut  College  for  Women,  and  the 
city  of  New  London  proposed  to  raise  $100,000,  the  short  term  campaign  plan 
was  proposed  and  carried  out  under  the  auspices  of  the  New  London  Voca- 
tional  School.     Professor   Ralph    L.   Cheyney   of  the   Y.   M.   C.   A.   College, 
Springfield,  Massachusetts,  outlined  the  plan  of  the  campaign.     Frederick  S. 
Hitchcock,  principal  of  the  Vocational  School,  in  consultation  with  Mr.  C.  S. 
Ward,  member  of  the  international  committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  organized 
the  details  of  the  drive.    A  committee  consisting  of  Mr.  Hitchcock,  Mr.  Alex. 
Campbell,  superintendent  of  the  New   London   Gas  and   Electric  Company, 
and   Rev.  James   W.   Bixler,   pastor  of  the   Second   Congregational   Church, 
went  to  Philadelphia,  where  Mr.  Ward  was  conducting  a  million  dollar  cam- 
paign.   The  organization  and  methods  of  work  in  that  drive  were  practically 
duplicated  in  New  London  under  the  direction  of  these  three  men,  with  the 
addition  of   Mr.   F.  Valentine   Chappell   of   New   London.     The   Vocational 
School  having  suggested  the  plan  of  the  business  organization,  was  by  its 
equipment  and  personnel  able  to  carry  on  a  large  share  of  the  practical  work. 
From  President  Burton,  of  Smith  College,  a  statement  of  what  Smith 
College  has  done  for  Northampton,  obtained  by  Mr.  Hitchcock,  was  used  as 
a  business  argument  in  favor  of  the  college.     The  office  management  organ- 
ized at  the  school  v.-as  soon  transferred  to  the  larger  office  equipment  of  the 
Gas  and  Electric  Company.     The  special  directory  and  card  indexing  of  the 
city  began  at  the  school  with  students'  help,  and  was  finished  in  the  larger 
offices  under  the  same  management  by  paid  stenographers  and  clerks.     The 
filing  cases  and  small  articles  were  made  entirely  by  students.     In  the  rush 
to  complete  larger  projects,  carpenters  and  sign  painters  from  outside  the 
school  were  employed.    The  Daily  Bulletin  used  at  headquarters,  the  twenty- 
foot  clock  on  the  "Evening  Day"  building  and  the  thirty-foot  thermometer 
on  the  First  Congregational  Church  lawn  were  made  in  this  way.    The  clock, 
with   materials  furnished  by   Mr.  Theodore   Bodenwein,   was  begun  on  the 
school  shop  floor,  but  the  sections  would  not  go  through  the  largest  door,  and 
it  was  transferred  to  the  floor  of  the  Konomoc  Hose  House.     The  lettering 
was  done  under  great  difficulty  by  A.  Francis  Watson,  and  the  clock  erected 
on  the  Day  building  by  B.  B.  Gardner,  in  a  morning  of  drizzle  of  sleet  and 
rain.     The  thermometer  in  three  sections  was  erected  by  the  New  England 
Telephone  Company.    Noonday  lunches  were  a  feature  of  the  campaign,  and 
with  a  hastily  improvised  kitchen  they  were  managed  and  served  by  Miriam 
Marstow  and  relays  of  girls  from   the   domestic  science  department  of  the 
Vocational  School. 

In  the  College  campaign,  practically  every  individual,  group,  club  and 
corporation  united  as  with  one  mind  to  carry  out  a  single  plan,  with  every 
persona!  and  business  interest  merged   into  an  organized  whole.     The  city 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  265 

awakened  to  a  collective  conscious  effort  and  did  what  it  set  out  to  do.  The 
Vocational  School  was  only  one  factor  among  many  contributing  to  the 
object  sought.  New  London  has  done  several  bigger  things  as  a  citj''  since 
191 1,  but  the  school  was  ready  in  mind  and  skill  and  equipment  to  furnish  its 
quota  of  service  and  cooperation  when  the  opportunity  came. 

Upon  the  declaration  of  war  with  Germany,  a  large  number  of  graduates 
and  seniors  volunteered  in  the  army  and  navy,  and  several  were  promoted 
on  account  of  their  mechanical  skill  and  general  academic  training.  The 
remaining  students  were  organized  to  put  over  the  many  drives  to  support 
hospitals,  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  Red 
Cross,  Hebrew  Welfare  Association,  and  the  Salvation  Army,  as  well  as  for 
the  sale  of  bonds.  During  the  summer  seasons  many  worked  independently, 
and  with  the  Boys'  Working  Reserve  to  increase  the  production  of  food. 
Under  the  auspices  of  the  domestic  science  department,  instructive  courses 
were  given  in  the  school  auditorium  teaching  better  methods  of  conserving 
food  in  the  home,  and  a  series  of  demonstrations  and  lectures  was  carried  over 
a  period  of  two  years  for  the  benefit  of  housekeepers  and  women  desiring 
to  prepare  for  service  by  nursing.  One  by  one  the  male  teachers  enlisted 
until  every  eligible  man  had  gone.  Women  served  well  in  their  places  where 
possible,  but  most  of  the  academic  branches  of  the  school  being  correlated 
with  technical  work  in  shops  and  laboratories,  made  it  difficult  for  women 
to  do  the  work  of  men.  Toward  the  end,  senior  boys  carried  some  of  the 
classes  in  mathematics  and  sciences.  It  was  in  a  way  a  strain  upon  the 
student  teachers  and  the  classes,  but  the  spirit  under  which  they  strove 
together  brought  no  apparent  loss  to  either.  The  student  teachers  have  since 
done  well  in  technical  colleges,  and  some  of  the  students  have  done  the  same. 
An  added  interest  and  application  to  study  seem  to  have  offset  such  weakness 
as  there  was  in  formal  preparation. 

During  the  fifteen  years  of  its  life  to  the  present  time  the  New  London 
Vocational  School  has  carried  the  approval  of  the  State  Board  of  Education 
for  acceptable  work  as  a  high  school.  Making  school  work  a  business  as  much 
as  storekeeping,  manufacturing  or  office  work,  with  that  absorbing  interest 
that  leads  to  success,  has  helped  somewhat.  Keeping  such  standards  in 
academic  work,  parallel  with  shop  and  laboratory  practice,  as  would  give  a 
combination  of  thought  and  skill,  have  developed  self-respect  and  a  strong 
school  spirit.  Contact  with  and  practical  service  to  the  interests  of  the  city 
and  the  homes,  has  brought  increasing  attendance  and  financial  support.  In 
regard  to  the  dignity  of  labor,  Ruskin  said,  "We  are  always  in  these  day.s 
endeavoring  to  separate  intellect  and  manual  labor ;  we  want  one  man  to 
be  always  thinking  and  another  to  be  always  working,  and  we  call  one  a 
gentleman  and  the  other  a  laborer,  whereas  the  workman  ought  to  be  thinking 
some  of  the  time,  and  the  thinker  to  be  working  some  of  the  time,  and  both 

MYSTIC  ORAL  .SCHOOL  FOR  THE  DEAF 

Miss  Clara  M.  K.  McGuigan  has  the  written  the  following  account  of 
this  school. 

The  I\Iyst!C  Oral  School  for  the  Deaf,  formerly  known  as  the  Whipple 


266  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Home  School,  was  founded  in  1S69  by  Zerah  Colburn  Whipple.  Zerah  Whip- 
ple was  descended  on  the  Whipple  line  from  Samuel  Whipple  and  Elizabeth 
Eddy  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  who  removed  to  Connecticut  prior  to 
1712.  Samuel  Whipple  was  an  iron  manufacturer  and  a  successful  business 
man.  His  mills  were  built  on  Saw  Mill  river,  near  Pocquetannock.  No  doubt 
from  this  line  Zerah  inherited  his  ingenuity  and  mechanical  skill.  When  only 
a  boy  he  made  himself  a  very  good  violin,  and  later,  as  an  aid  to  his  work  in 
teaching  the  deaf,  he  invented  the  Whipple's  natural  alphabet,  an  ingenious 
pictorial  alphabet  representing  the  positions  of  the  lips,  tongue,  etc.,  in  pro- 
ducing the  elementary  English  sounds.  He  was  also  descended  from  the 
Wolcotts  and  Griswolds  of  Connecticut,  families  empowered  with  great  intel- 
lectual and  executive  ability.  His  Bolles,  Hempstead,  Waterhouse  and 
Rogers  blood  gave  literary  ability,  musical  and  oratorical  talent,  and 
religious  zeal.  Two  Scotch  families.  Grouch  and  Douglass,  added  strength 
to  his  fine  English  blood.  Having  the  remarkable  family  inheritance  that 
he  did,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Zerah  Colburn  Whipple  was  endowed  with  the 
vision  and  ability  of  a  genius.  The  inspiration  for  his  work  came  from  his 
grandfather,  Jonathan  Whipple,  who  had  taught  his  own  little  son  Enoch, 
deaf  from  birth,  to  talk  and  read  the  lips. 

Jonathan  Whipple  was  also  endowed  with  all  of  the  talents  of  his  remark- 
able ancestors,  but  perhaps  religious  zeal  was  paramount.  He  was  the  first 
president  of  the  Connecticut  Peace  Society,  and  the  extent  of  his  charities 
was  boundless.  He  was  a  natural  scholar  himself,  and  gave  his  children  a 
good  common  school  education  in  the  little  red  school  house  of  his  district, 
but  he  did  so  much  for  the  poor  and  friendless  that  he  hadn't  the  means  left 
for  the  higher  education  of  his  children,  so  although  all,  including  Enoch,  had 
college  minds,  none  had  college  advantages. 

Enoch  Whipple  owned  a  farm  and  blacksmith  shop  adjoining  his  father's 
farm.  He  spoke  and  read  the  lips  so  well  that  he  did  business  for  years  with 
an  iron  manufacturer  in  Norwich  without  anyone  suspecting  he  was  deaf. 
He  married  a  cousin,  a  hearing  woman  of  great  literary  ability.  Their  eve- 
nings v/ere  spent  in  reading  the  best  books  of  literature,  travel,  etc.,  and  their 
home  with  its  extensive  library  was  the  gathering  place  for  all  the  ambitious 
children  in  the  neighborhood.  They  had  the  bound  volumes  of  the  "Century 
Magazine"  from  its  first  issue  to  the  one  at  the  time  of  their  death,  and  their 
book-cases  were  filled  with  hundreds  of  fine  books  on  every  conceivable 
subject. 

Zerah  Whipple  grew  up  in  his  grandfather's  home.  He  imbibed  his 
religious  zeal  and  inherited  his  remarkable  talents.  He  loved  and  admired 
his  uncle  Enoch  and  his  cultured  wife.  He  spent  many  evenings  with  them 
in  their  delightful  home.  As  he  grew  to  manhood,  he  began. to  wonder  why 
other  deaf  people  could  not  be  taught  to  talk  like  his  uncle  Enoch,  and  his 
grandfather  convinced  him  they  could.  He  determined  to  make  teaching  the 
deaf  and  dumb  to  speak  and  read  the  lips  his  life  work. 

He  advertised  for  pupils,  and  November  15,  1869,  a  young  lad  of  twelve 
years  from  a  wealthy  Quaker  family  of  Wilmington,  Delaware,  was  brought 
to  the  Whipple  home   in   Ledyard,   Connecticut,  for  instruction.     The  old 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  267 

grandfather  showed  Zerah  how  to  begin  his  work  in  bringing  speech  to  the 
dumb  lips  of  the  boy,  and  Zerah  quickly  acquired  skill  in  teaching  and 
obtained  gratifying  results.  Although  this  boy  was  twelve  years  old  when 
his  education  began,  he  acquired  good,  intelligible  speech,  was  a  fine  lip 
reader,  and  had  a  liberal  education  when  he  left  school  at  the  time  of  Zerah's 
death  in  1879.  His  taste  for  good  literature  was  formed.  He  regularly  sub- 
scribed for  the  leading  magazines,  was  familiar  with  Dickens  and  other  good 
writers,  and  was  able  to  take  his  place  in  the  class  of  society  in  which  he  was 
born  and  look  after  his  own  and  his  mother's  business  interests. 

Other  pupils  came  from  all  over  the  United  States,  and  the  old  gambrel- 
roofed  farm  house  had  to  be  enlarged  to  accommodate  them.  All  of  the 
family  were  pressed  into  service  as  teachers  except  the  dear  mother,  who 
was  "Mother  Whipple"  to  them  all.  The  results  were  remarkable,  for 
Enoch,  who  lived  next  door,  was  their  model.  He  it  was  the  parents  saw  and 
talked  v.'ith  when  they  brought  their  children  to  the  school,  and  speech  like 
his  or  approaching  it  was  what  they  paid  for  and  expected.  Most  of  the 
pupils  came  from  distant  States,  but  the  fame  of  the  school  soon  began  to  be 
talked  about  in  Connecticut.  Parents  of  deaf  children  who  hadn't  money  vis- 
ited the  school  and  wrote  letters  begging  Mr.  Whipple  to  find  a  way  to  give 
speech  to  their  children.  There  was  no  school  in  Connecticut  but  the  sign 
school  at  Hartford  where  deaf  children  could  be  educated  free.  Then  it  was 
that  Zerah  Whipple  applied  to  the  legislature  of  Connecticut  for  State  aid. 
This  was  granted  July  24,  1872.  From  that  time  children  from  families  in 
poor  and  moderate  circumstances  have  had  the  privilege,  if  they  so  desired, 
of  having  their  children  educated  by  what  is  known  as  the  Pure  Oral  Method. 

By  the  Pure  Oral  Method  is  meant  giving  a  deaf  child  speech  and  lip 
reading  in  an  oral  environment,  so  that  he  will  unconsciously,  by  force  of 
habit,  use  speech  altogether  in  communicating  with  his  fellow-men — in  other 
v.-ords,  restoring  him  to  society.  Now  this  can  be  done  more  or  less  per- 
fectly according  to  the  ability  of  the  child,  the  ability  of  the  teacher  and  the 
child's  environment.  If  we  want  our  child  to  acquire  French  and  talk  French 
naturally  and  fluently,  we  place  it  in  a  French  school  in  France,  where  it  has 
a  French  environment.  Such  a  method  of  procedure  is  absolutely  necessary 
in  acquiring  fluency  in  any  language.  It  is  the  same  with  speech  for  the 
deaf.  A  deaf  child  in  order  to  acquire  speech  and  use  it  spontaneously  must 
have  a  speech  environment.  No  school  that  teaches  signs  and  finger  spelling 
can  give  its  pupils  a  speech  environment.  The  child  easily  masters  signs 
and  finger  spelling,  and  as  they  are  easier  at  first,  it  will  use  them  instead 
cf  speech.  So  it  is  in  the  schools  called  Combined  Schools,  where  they  have 
what  is  called  an  Oral  department,  speech  is  relegated  to  the  class  rooms 
and  seldom  if  ever  used  elsewhere.  In  such  schools  the  children  think  in 
signs  and  translate  into  speech  when  they  use  it.  In  Zerah  Whipple's  school 
this  was  not  true.  The  pupils  thought  in  speech  and  used  speech  as  their 
mother  tongue.  Speech  soon  became  spontaneous  and  natural.  Because  of 
this  difference  between  Oral  and  Sign  and  Combined  Schools,  the  Mystic 
Oral  School  has  continued  its  work  and  because  of  this  difference  it  is  still 
needed. 


268  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

In  a  short  time  the  Whipple  School  outgrew  the  farm  house  and  its 
additions.  The  beautiful  summer  residence  of  a  retired  sea  captain  was  pur- 
chased from  his  heirs,  and  in  1874  the  pupils  were  transferred  to  their  new 
home.  There  is  where  the  school  is  still  situated.  It  is  in  the  town  of 
Groton,  about  a  mile  from  the  village  of  Mystic.  It  is  said  the  old  sea  cap- 
tain selected  this  site  for  his  home  because  it  commanded  the  most  wonderful 
view  of  land  and  sea  to  be  found  on  the  southern  coast  of  Connecticut.  It  is 
on  a  high  hill  overlooking  river,  village,  valley  and  sound.  It  has  country, 
seashore,  and  almost  mountain  air  combined.  The  Mansion,  as  it  was  called, 
seemed  particularly  well  adapted  to  fill  the  requirements  of  the  Whipple 
Home  School,  and  it  grew  slowly  in  numbers  and  flourished  until  1879,  j^st 
ten  years  after  its  establishment,  when  its  enthusiastic  and  gifted  principal 
died. 

His  loss  was  in  a  way  irreparable,  but  as  the  members  of  his  family  had 
always  assisted  in  teaching,  they  were  able  to  go  on  with  the  work.  His 
brother-in-law,  Frank  Whipple,  who  had  been  his  partner  for  a  time,  became 
its  principal  and  did  excellent  work.  He  finally  sold  out  his  interests  to  an 
uncle  and  aunt,  and  though  retained  for  a  while  as  a  teacher,  eventually  he 
left  Connecticut  and  went  to  California  to  teach  speech  to  the  deaf  in  the 
State  School  at  Berkeley. 

For  ten  years  longer  the  school  was  conducted  with  varied  degrees  of 
success  according  to  the  efficiency  of  the  teachers  employed.  Advertising 
ceased  with  Zerah  Whipple's  death.  The  private  pupils  were  gradually 
withdrawn  and  placed  in  other  schools  or  taught  by  a  private  teacher  at 
home  until  none  but  State  pupils  remained.  As  the  school  was  not  endowed 
and  had  to  depend  almost  entirely  upon  the  State  appropriation  for  its  main- 
tenance, and  as  this  was  only  $175  per  capita  per  annum,  it  was  impossible 
to  secure  experienced  teachers  and  provide  up-to-date  equipment  in  the  home. 
In  1895,  Hon.  O.  Vincent  Coffin,  then  governor  of  Connecticut,  visited 
the  school  and  completely  reorganized  it.  Its  name  was  changed  to  the 
Mystic  Oral  School  for  the  Deaf,  and  the  per  capita  appropriation  was  raised 
to  $200  per  year.  Dr.  Clara  M.  Hammond  McGuigan,  daughter  of  the  former 
principal  and  first  cousin  to  Zerah  Whipple,  was  asked  to  assume  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  school  as  its  superintendent. 

Dr.  McGuigan  was  a  graduate  of  the  Connecticut  Normal  School  at  New 
Britain,  of  the  Mystic  Valley  Institute  at  Mystic,  and  of  the  Woman's  Med- 
ical College  of  Pennsylvania  at  Philadelphia.  She  had  taught  in  the  public 
schools  of  Ledyard  and  Groton,  and  had  been  principal  of  the  Ivoryton  School 
in  Essex.  She  had  been  resident  physician  for  fifteen  months  in  the  City 
Hospital  of  Philadelphia,  and  had  received  special  training  in  work  with  the 
deaf  from  both  Zerah  and  Frank  Whipple.  She  was  the  wife  of  a  physician, 
and  Vv'as  net  dependent  upon  the  school  for  her  support,  consequently  she 
could  and  did  use  the  State  money  for  the  betterment  of  the  school  instead 
of  taking  an  adequate  salary. 

Dr.  McGuigan  at  once  engaged  Miss  Ella  Scott  as  principal,  a  teacher 
who  had  had  eleven  years  experience  teaching  in  the  Clarke  School  at  North- 
ampton, Massachusetts,  probably  the  best  school  for  the  deaf  in  the  world. 


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V  1 

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7^*7Sv>R' f        lr-/\^  ~s'*  ■* 

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^  ^^^'iL''  '^WiJy^  '■  /-y^ 

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PBBiSPHB^^^ -^^^^          * 

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lUz. 

MYSTIC  VALLEY  INSTITUTE,  MYSTIC. 


EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  269 

Miss  Scott  came  to  Mystic  full  of  courage  and  enthusiasm,  with  the  deter- 
mination to  make  the  Mystic  School  as  much  like  her  model  at  Northampton 
as  possible.  She  taught  trained  teachers  to  assist  her,  and  did  brave  work. 
The  school  was  soon  incorporated,  and  in  five  years  had  doubled  in  numbers. 
More  room  was  needed,  so  a  large  addition,  subscribed  to  by  friends  of  the 
school,  was  built  and  occupied.  The  work  of  reorganizing  and  building  up 
the  school  had  worn  upon  Miss  Scott  so  that  when  she  was  ofifered  a  fine 
position  as  a  private  teacher  of  a  little  girl  in  Canada  she  resigned  to  accept  it. 
Other  efficient  principals  followed  Miss  Scott,  but  owing  to  lack  of  funds 
the  work  was  arduous  and  discouraging,  so  no  one  held  the  position  longer 
than  five  years.  The  principals  under  Dr.  McGuigan's  superintendency  were 
as  follows:  Miss  Ella  Scott,  1895-1900;  Miss  Alice  H.  Damon,  B.A.,  1900-04; 
Miss  Frances  E.  Gillespie,  1904-07;  Misses  Jane  and  Eleanor,  associate  prin- 
cipals, 1907-12;  Mr.  Tobias  Brill,  1912-17;  Dr.  C.  M.  H.  McGuigan,  superin- 
tendent and  principal,  1917-18;  Mrs.  Sara  Small  Temple,  1918-19;  Miss  Addie 
L.  Landers,  acting  principal,  1919-20;  Mr.  Walter  J.  Tucker,  1920-21. 

In  1895  the  school  numbered  18  pupils;  in  1900  there  were  36;  in  1910 
it  numbered  54,  and  at  the  present  time  there  are  82  pupils  in  school,  and 
about  50  on  the  waiting  list. 

The  per  capita  apportioned  by  the  State  of  Connecticut  for  the  support 
of  the  school  has  been  as  follows:  1872-95,  $175;  1895-1901,  $200;  1901-03, 
$225;  1903-07,  $250;  1907-15,  $275;  1915,  $300;  in  each  of  the  last  four  periods 
there  was  an  allowance  of  $20  for  clothing  when  necessary. 

By  1909,  the  building  with  its  addition  was  inadequate.  It  was  unsafe 
to  house  so  many  deaf  children  in  a  frame  building,  so  the  State  Legislature 
was  appealed  to  and  eventually  $17,000  was  appropriated  for  a  fireproof 
dormitory.  This  was  built  and  occupied  in  September,  191 1.  This  was  built 
for  fifty  or  sixty  children,  and  not  for  eighty,  so  another  new  building  is  now 
needed  to  relieve  congestion  and  to  form  the  first  unit  of  a  model  school  on 
the  cottage  plan. 

Four  States  have  sent  their  deaf  wards  to  the  Mystic  School :  Connecticut, 
1872  to  the  present  time;  New  Jersey,  1876-1882;  New  Hampshire,  1897-1902; 
Vermont,  1898-1912. 

A  member  of  the  Board  of  Charities  of  Massachusetts  visited  the  Mystic 
School  and  recommended  sending  its  pupils  to  Mystic  when  it  hadn't  accom- 
modations for  them  within  its  own  borders,  but  as  the  room  at  Mystic  was 
limited,  no  effort  was  made  to  secure  Massachusetts  pupils. 

The  course  of  study  prescribed  includes  lip  reading,  speech,  language, 
technical  grammar,  arithmetic,  geography.  United  States,  General  and  English 
history,  physiology,  American  and  English  literature,  and  some  algebra.  In 
1904  one  pupil,  having  completed  the  course,  graduated.  In  1907  two  pupils 
graduated.  In  1910  there  were  two  graduates;  in  1913,  two  graduates;  in 
1918,  three  graduates;  and  in  1919,  one  graduate.  Three  of  these  pupils 
afterwards  entered  high  school  for  the  hearing. 

In  addition  to  the  speech,  lip  reading  aryi  academic  studies  taught,  each 
child  is  trained  along  one  or  more  industrial  lines.  The  various  industries 
that  have  been  taught  in  the  school  are  as  follows :  For  boys — Printing,  farm- 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

ing,  cabinet  work,  carpentry,  chair  caning,  hammock  netting,  cobbling,  tree 
pruning  and  spraying,  waiting  on  table,  assisting  cook,  cooking,  etc.  For 
girls — Gardening,  basketry,  pottery,  embroidery,  crocheting,  knitting,  sew- 
ing, dressmaking,  housework,  cooking,  millinery  and  weaving. 

Almost  without  exception,  the  pupils  of  this  school  have  gone  out  into 
the  world  well  equipped  to  earn  their  own  living  and  to  be  a  credit  to  their 
school,  their  families  and  their  State. 

Practically  from  the  time  of  its  organization  the  school  has  maintained 
a  small  normal  class.  Over  fifty  teachers  have  finished  the  course  and  ren- 
dered valuable  service  in  bringing  speech  to  deaf  children  in  this  and  other 
States. 

During  all  the  years  Dr.  McGuigan  superintended  the  school,  she  looked 
forward  to  the  time  when  either  some  wealthy  person  would  endow  it  or  the 
State  would  purchase  it  so  its  work  could  go  on  unimpeded  by  private  man- 
agement and  lack  of  funds.  The  endowment  did  not  materialize,  so  in  1919 
a  bill  for  the  purchase  if  the  school  by  the  State  of  Connecticut  was  passed 
by  the  legislative  body,  and  the  school  would  at  once  have  become  a  State 
school  had  its  board  been  assured  it  would  be  continued.  This  assurance 
was  not  given,  so  the  deeds  were  not  signed.  Dr.  McGuigan  continued  the 
work  and  waited  for  a  more  auspicious  time. 

Before  the  legislature  of  1921  came  into  being,  the  new  governor,  Hon. 
Everett  J.  Lake,  expressed  himself  as  favorable  to  the  continuance  of  the 
Mystic  School,  so  relying  upon  the  hope  that  he  and  the  new  legislative  body 
would  make  proper  provision  for  the  future  of  the  Mystic  Oral  School,  the 
deeds  were  signed  and  the  school  passed  over  to  the  State.  It  is  now  a  State 
School.  It  is  the  only  Pure  Oral  School  in  the  State.  It  represents  the  most 
advanced  method  known  in  the  education  of  the  deaf.  Its  situation  for  such 
a  school  is  ideal,  and  with  proper  provisions  for  its  future,  new  buildings 
and  equipment,  it  can  be  made  the  equal  of  the  best  school  for  the  deaf  in 
the  world. 

Dr.  McGuigan  resigned  as  superintendent,  and  Mr.  Walter  J.  Tucker 
was  appointed  to  the  place.  He  was  an  oral  teacher  of  long  standing.  He 
had  held  the  position  as  principal  of  the  Wright  Oral  School  of  New  York, 
and  his  wife  was  also  an  experienced  oral  teacher  of  the  deaf.  They  seemed 
particularly  fitted  to  go  on  with  the  work. 

Though  not  the  first  oral  school  in  America,  it  was  one  of  the  first. 
Hampered  always  by  lack  of  funds,  it  has  grown  and  has  done  good  work. 
Its  influence  has  been  far-reaching  and  its  pupils  are  its  best  advertisement. 


CHAPTER  XI 
RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

The  following  History  of  Religion  in  New  London  County,  beginning  on  this  page  and 
ending  on  page  3x4,  is  by  tne  licv.  W.  Hulbert,  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ, 
in  Croton.     ihe  remainder  01  the  chapter  is  by  contributors  and  stalf  writers: 

In  this  southeastern  corner  of  Connecticut,  religion  of  an  advanced  type 
has  for  these  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  and  more  proved  its  funda- 
mental place  in  human  society.  The  Indian  tribes  preceding  foreign  settle- 
ments had  their  peculiar  religious  cults  which  doubtless  were  also  basic  to 
their  political  and  social  life ;  but  as  far  as  we  can  know  these  show  no  trace 
of  development  in  form  of  worship  or  substance  of  creed,  and  especially 
interest  us  only  in  their  contacts  with  the  more  advanced  faiths  of  their  suc- 
cessors. For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  millenium,  now,  New  London  county 
has  witnessed  almost  every  development  of  religion  characteristic  of  the 
New  World,  and  especially  of  New  England.' 

It  is  true,  the  temporary  decline  in  ethical  ideals  did  not  afflict  the  infant 
sevenieenih  century  settlements  here  with  anything  like  the  fanatical  craze 
which  would  burn  a  "witch"  or  smother  a  "Quaker,"  or  even  exile  a  Roger 
Williams,  as  was  the  case  in  the  Massachusetts  colony.  Indeed,  at  intervals 
we  note,  on  the  contrary,  an  unexpected  breadth  of  handling  of  issues  that 
might  easily  have  taken  a  harsher  turn;  as  when  in  1702  the  Rev.  John  Keith 
and  the  Rev.  John  Talbot,  working  under  the  auspices  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  coming  from  Providence,  crossed 
the  Ferry  (Groton  Banks)  to  New  London  and  were  graciously  received, 
particularly  by  the  authorities,  even  though  they  came  to  champion  the 
Church  of  England.    The  first  mentioned  o£  them  says  in  his  journal : 

"September  13th,  Sunday,  Mr.  Talbot  preached  there  (New  London)  in 
the  forenoon  and  I  preached  there  in  the  afternoon,  we  being  desired  to  do  so 
by  the  minister,  Mr.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  who  civilly  entertained  us  at  his 
house,  and  expressed  his  good  affections  to  the  Church  of  England.  My  text 
was  Romans  viii  :g.  The  auditory  was  large  and  well  affected.  Colonel 
Winthrop,  Governor  of  the  Colony,  invited  us  to  dinner  at  his  house  and 
kindly  entertained  us,  both  then  and  the  next  day." 

Again  we  have  the  story  of  Jesse  Lee,  the  pioneer  of  Methodism,  in  1789 
preaching  with  popular  acceptance  in  the  identical  county  court  house  our 
eyes  rest  upon  today  in  New  London.     A  few  years  later.  Bishop  Asbury, 


'  New  London  county  as  constituted  in  i()66.  when  the  Connecticut  Colony  was  divided 
into  four  counties  under  the  new  charter  obtained  in  England  by  Governor  John  Winthrop. 
Jr.,  in  1662,  embraced  a  much  larger  area  than  it  does  today.  It  stretched  from  the  much 
disputed  Rhode  Island  boundary  westward  across  the  Connecticut  river  to  the  Hammonasset 
river,  being  the  western  border  of  the  modern  Clinton,  taking  in  all  the  Saybrooks  (Killing- 
worth  and  Chester).  To  the  north  it  embraced  gradually  (until  1726)  the  larger  part  of  the 
modern  Windham  county  (with  the  exception  of  Woodstock,  claimed  by  Suffolk  countj', 
Massachusetts)  and  a  small  part  of  the  modern  Tolland  county.  We  must  be  content  with 
a  hazy  notion  of  this  whole  northern  border.  WTien  Windham  county  was  established  in 
1726,  the  Northern  townships  of  New  London  county  were  added  to  several  from  Hartford 
county  to  constitute  the  new  area.  When  Middlesex  county  was  formed  in  1785,  New 
London  county  lost  historic  Saybrook,  with  Killing^^'Orth  and  Chester,  retaining  all  east  of 
the  Connecticut  up  to  East  Haddam. 


272  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

of  the  same  Communion,  had  a  similarly  favorable  reception.  In  1793  the 
Rev.  John  Thayer,  a  Roman  Catholic  missionarj-,  was  allowed  the  use  of  the 
old  First  Church  at  Norwich  Town  by  Rev.  Joseph  Strong,  its  pastor,  in 
speaking  to  a  miscellaneous  audience,  when  he  undertook  to  prove  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  was  the  only  true  church  of  Christ.  The  discourse  was 
accounted  by  the  local  press  to  be  "learned  and  vigorous,"  and  the  speaker 
was  given  a  further  hearing  in  the  same  place  on  the  following  Sunday 
evening. 

These  incidents  are  typical  of  the  freer  conditions  that  generally  prevailed 
in  the  Connecticut  Colony,  following  the  Plymouth  precedent  and  doubtless 
influenced  to  a  degree  by  the  still  freer  attitude  of  the  Rhode  Island  Plantation. 
Voting,  in  New  London  county,  was  never  confined  to  church  members,  as 
was  the  case  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Haven,  but  the  suffrage  was  open 
to  all  reputable  male  citizens.  While  the  historian  of  New  London  county 
has  to  call  attention  to  many  instances  of  narrowness  and  petty  religious 
persecutions  in  the  earlier  colonial  life,  he  can  yet  report  better  conditions 
in  these  respects  than  were  customarily  found  in  other  parts  of  New  England 
or  in  the  British  Isles  and  the  continent  of  Europe. 

The  first  religious  organization  in  the  county  (the  First  Church  of 
Christ)  came  to  New  London  as  an  already  organized  body  from  Gloucester, 
Massachusetts,  bringing  a  modified  connection  between  Church  and  State. 
To  these  virile,  simple-hearted  founders  the  Bible  was  a  law-book  for  the 
infant  colon)',  as  well  as  a  book  of  religion,  and  many  decisions  in  the  early 
courts  took  their  precedents  direct  from  Scripture.  All  freeholders  originally 
were  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  churches,  and  many  of  the  disturbances 
and  quarrels  which  arose  were  essentially  economic ;  for  a  parish  was  loath 
to  lose  any  of  its  paying  constituency  through  the  secession  of  outlying  com- 
munities who  claimed  the  right  to  carve  out  their  own  parishes.  Indeed,  the 
location  of  churches  seems  to  have  caused  more  trouble  than  any  other 
question  that  arose  in  those  early  days. 

Church  attendance  at  the  first  was  compulsory,  and  a  large  number  of 
cases  of  discipline  came  about  thereby.  "Separatism"  caused  the  nearest 
approach  to  martyrdom  to  be  found  in  all  these  annals,  bringing  to  the  front 
men  and  women  who  claimed  the  right  to  worship  as  their  consciences  dic- 
tated. The  record  gives  us  case  after  case  of  that  form  of  persecution. 
Extreme  personalities  were  ready  to  go  the  limit  in  self-assertion.  Possibly 
the  still  freer  conditions  that  prevailed  in  Rhode  Island  may  have  helped  to 
this  end.  The  famous  Rogerenes  boldly  denounced  what  they  called  "the 
idolatry  of  the  Sabbath,"  and  took  delight  in  disturbing  meetings,  and  in  the 
punishments  which  inevitably  followed.  New  London  county  took  its  full 
share  in  the  long  contest  which  at  last  brought  complete  separation  of  Church 
and  State  (about  1750)  and  placed  on  a  voluntary  basis  both  church  attend- 
ance and  church  support.  But  in  the  meanwhile,  Baptists,  Adventists,  Roman 
Catholics,  Episcopalians  and  Friends,  as  well  as  all  free  thinkers,  had.  for  the 
most  part,  a  hard  time  of  it  during  the  first  century  of  the  local  history. 

We  get  a  happier  outlook  on  things  when  we  note  that  New  London 
county  shared  in  all  the  theological  movements  that  helped  fashion  the  re- 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  273 

ligious,  educational,  social  and  political  life  of  Southeastern  Connecticut. 
Whatever  our  modern  outlook  may  be,  all  this  past  now  seems  to  have  been 
essential  and  fundamental  in  the  developing  life.  The  looser  bonds  of  the 
Cambridge  Platform  (1648)  which  fostered  the  spirit  of  independency  gave 
place  gradually  to  the  closer  associational  and  constitutional  ties  of  the  Say- 
brook  Platform  (1708).  The  more  formal  life  of  the  churches,  that  succeeded 
the  pioneer  fervor,  and  under  which  the  "half-way  covenant"  allowed  a  kind 
of  church  mem.bership  which  did  not  necessitate  deep  religious  convictions, 
was  powerfully  invaded  by  the  preaching  of  the  Great  Awakening  in  the  third, 
fourth  and  fifth  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  Jonathan  Edwards. 
George  Whitfield  and  Eleazar  Wheelock  championed  reasonable  evidence  of 
true  "conversion"  as  essential  to  church  membership. 

The  inevitable  demoralization  of  the  war  of  the  American  Revolution 
struck  the  religious  life  in  New  London  county  hard,  in  spite  of  the  patriotic 
fervor  that  centered  about  the  celebrated  Land  Office  in  Lebanon  and  the  heroic 
defence  of  New  London  in  1781.  The  massacre  at  Fort  Griswold  took  every 
male  member  of  the  Groton  church  except  an  aged  invalid  who  could  not  get 
out  to  share  the  glory  of  that  September  day.  Loss  of  life  generally  in  the 
homes  in  the  county,  abject  poverty,  the  emigration  of  many  enterprising 
families  to  newer  settlements  in  Vermont,  New  Hampshire.  New  York  and 
Ohio,  laxness  of  morals  and  the  inroad  of  a  deistical  philosophy  from  France 
and  England,  as  well  as  lack  of  well-equipped  men  for  the  ministry,  the  taking 
of  many  efficient  pastors  for  much-needed  chaplains  in  the  army,  the  tem- 
porar}'  clouding  of  the  loyalty  of  those  churches  in  the  county  planted  and 
fostered  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  loss  of  substantial  citizens  who 
could  not  go  back  on  the  old  flag  of  England,  and  who,  often  as  the  result  of 
bitter  handling  by  their  neighbors,  migrated  to  Canada — all  these  and  many 
more  obstacles  like  them  contributed  to  give  an  alarming  setback  to  organized 
religion  in  New  London  county.  We  may  well  be  astonished  that  the  com- 
bined results  were  not  worse  than  they  were,  and  that  the  recovery,  checked 
by  the  alarms  of  the  War  of  1812,  was  as  good  as  it  was.  It  all  shows  a  virile 
stock  of  men  and  women  who  could  think  through  the  changing,  freer  con- 
ditions into  the  larger  life  of  our  day. 

To  the  aid  of  the  traditional  Congregational  churches  came  that  of  other 
types  of  religious  life  and  feeling,  which,  in  turn,  laid  solid  foundations  of 
religious  faith  and  greatly  stimulated,  directly  and  indirectly,  the  older  forms 
Particular  attention  here  is  called  to  the  conscientious  contentions  of  the 
various  types  of  the  Baptist  invasion  from  Rhode  Island,  which  rapidly  per- 
meated the  whole  county  as  soon  as  the  initial  friction  quieted  down,  and 
affected  especially  the  sections  east  of  the  Thames  river.  Social  ostracism, 
oft  imprisonment  as  "Separatists,"  fines,  nor  any  other  obstacles,  could  keep 
these  sturdy  contenders  for  freedom  of  worship  and  a  literal  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  their  Master  from  swinging  forward,  often  with  a  marked  evan- 
gelistic force,  in  all  these  communities.  With  these  came  the  Adventists  of 
various  hues,  who  seemed  still  more  extreme  in  their  ideals  and  methods. 

At  the  opposite  poles  came  the  liturgical  groups,  on  ancient  and  approved 
foundations,  which  sought  to  build  solidly  the  Kingdom  of  God.    The  Episco- 

X.L.— I-IS 


274  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

pal  churches  established  their  orderly  worship  in  all  the  centers  and  with 
chapels  in  selected  rural  places.  They  had  the  honor  of  presenting  to  their 
American  communion  its  first  Bishop,  v.-ho,  as  an  infant,  had  been  baptized 
in  a  Congregational  church  (North  Groton  or  Ledyard)  by  his  own  father. 
then  a  temporary  supply  there.     (See  page  305.) 

As  immigration  brought  in  ever-increasing  numbers  of  followers  of  Rome 
from  Ireland  and  the  Continent  of  Europe,  Catholic  churches  thoroughly 
organized  their  constituencies  throughout  the  county  and  rendered  an  ines- 
timable aid  to  law  and  order,  as  well  as  to  religious  fervor. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  churches  sprang  up  in  the  tracks  of  Jesse  Lee 
and  Bishop  Asbury,  the  pioneers  of  Methodism.  They  did  vital  service  in 
all  the  centers  and  reached  out  to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  rural  districts. 
Their  freer  expression  of  religious  life  and  feeling  brought  a  general  benefit 
to  all  the  communities  where  they  were  established. 

In  the  deistical  atmosphere  of  a  century  and  a  half  ago,  when  the  con- 
ception of  an  absentee  God  had  so  generally  displaced  that  of  the  immanent, 
Divine  Personality  of  the  Bible  for  both  orthodox  and  free  thinker,  the  stage 
was  set  for  a  battle  royal  in  New  England,  as  well  as  old  England,  between 
the  somewhat  decadent  orthodoxy  and  the  many  who  styled  themselves 
"Unitarian"  as  against  the  semi-theistic  tendencv  of  the  traditional  theology, 
under  the  soubriuet  of  "Trinitarian."  Xcw  London  county  was  not  markedly 
influenced  by  this  movement,  which  in  many  other  sections  swung  the  leading 
Congregational  churches  under  the  lead  of  Harvard  College  over  onto  the 
Unitarian  side  of  the  controversy.  Doubtless  the  Saybrook  Platform  (1708) 
(see  page  2S7)  and  its  Consociation  organization  kept  the  churches  of  Con- 
necticut more  in  line. 

In  this  connection,  however,  it  should  be  noted  that  for  nineteen  years 
the  First  Church  of  Christ  in  New  London  had  a  pastor.  Rev.  Henry  Chan- 
ning,  just  out  of  Yale  College,  who  during  his  pastorate  from  1787  to  1806 
held  views  that  later  were  counted  "Unitarian,"  but  yet  which,  with  only 
slight  modifications  of  phraseology,  do  not  seem  far  from  modern  orthodoxy.' 

But  at  the  close  of  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Channing  in  1806,  the  religious 
leaders  of  the  orthodox  Congregational  churches  of  New  London  county  set 


'  "Profession  and  Covenant"  used  by  Rev.  Henry  Channing  at  the  First  Church  of 
Christ"  in  New  London  from  1700  to  1806: 

"In  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  the  Searcher  of  h2arts,  and  before  this  assembly,  you 
profess  your  unfeigned  belief  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  given  by  divine  inspiration,  your 
acceptance  of  all  the  doctrines  contained  in  them  and  your  submission  to  the  whole  will  of 
God  revealed  in  His  Word. 

"You  do  now  acknowledge  the  Lord  Jehovah,  the  one  loving  and  true  God,  to  be  your 
God ;  and,  relying  upon  divine  assistance,  do  promise  to  walk  humbly  with  God. 

"Professing  repentance  of  all  your  fins  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus,  you  sincerely 
receive  Him  as  He  is  offered  in  the  Gospel  as  the  Teacher  from  God — the  High  Priest,  of 
our  profession — and  the  King  and  Head  of  the  church,  believing  that  there  is  none  other 
name  under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby  you  must  be  saved. 

"Depending  on  the  Holy  Spirit  for  sanctification,  consolation  and  spiritual  strength;  and, 
receiving  the  Word  of  God  as  the  only  rule  of  your  faith  and  practice,  you  submit  to  the 
brotherly  care  of  this  church  of  Christ,  and  to  the  discipline  He  hath  established  in  His 
church. 

"You  do  now  solemnly  give  up  yourself  and  all  that  you  have  unto  God,  promising  that 
you  will  endeavor  to  walk  as  becometh  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  that  you  may  give  no  cause  for 
others  to  speak  evil  of  it  on  your  own  account,  but  that  the  name  of  God  may  be  glorified  in 
you.     Thus  you  profess  and  covenant." — Blake,  Vol.  IL  p.  22. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  275 

themselves  against  this  plan  of  church  life  which  seemed  to  accept  member- 
ship on  the  basis  of  a  good  moral  character  and  not  by  conversion  or  deep 
conviction,  and  Vv'hich  had  little  or  no  interest  in  missionary  endeavor  and 
became  more  and  more  self-contained  and  intellectual.  The  sterner  Calvin- 
ism of  Puritanism  had  a  revival  and  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Cate- 
chism came  again  into  vogue,  as  a  deeper  call  of  God  vi^as  recognized  in  power- 
ful revival  movements  that  set  in.  The  winning  of  an  expanding  continent 
and  of  a  world  lying  in  sin  and  misery  appealed  to  the  orthodox  churches  of 
the  county  of  all  denominations.  The  desperately  shattered  condition  of  the 
post-Revolutionary  churches,  with  the  aftermath  of  the  war  of  1812,  had  its 
healthful  reaction.  Slowly  the  churches  gathered  themselves  together  for  an 
emphasis  upon  a  Biblical  faith,  pressing  the  claims  of  the  Scriptures  through 
the  Bible  Societies  upon  every  home  in  the  county,  and  by  the  establishing 
of  Sunday  schools  for  the  organized  study  of  the  Bible.  The  Connecticut 
Home  Missionary  Society  helped  the  churches  reach  all  neglected  places  in 
the  State  and  county  and  to  reach  out  to  all  regions  whither  Connecticut 
people  had  migrated — in  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  New  York,  and  especially 
in  the  Western  Reserve  of  Ohio.  The  best  and  the  worst  of  humanity  fol- 
lowed the  western  trail,  and  the  call  for  the  establishment  of  religion  in  the 
new  sections  appealed  successfully  to  the  churches  of  this  county,  which  sent 
its  finest  men  and  women  as  pioneers,  and,  along  with  them,  churches,  schools 
and  ministers. 

Soon  the  call  came  from  further  afield  and  the  whole  world  of  needy 
humanity  came  home  to  the  hearts  of  these  earnest  Christians,  and  the 
orthodox  churches  of  New  London  county  began  that  steady  and  copious 
stream  of  benevolence  and  self-surrender  for  foreign  work  which  has  grown 
with  the  years.  As  the  New  London  and  Norwich  sea  captains  took  Amer- 
ica's commerce  to  the  ends  of  the  world,  so  the  educator  and  missionary  took 
America's  deepest  religious  character  and  discipline  to  nations  still  in  the 
shadow  of  idolatry. 

Closely  linked  to  this  broad  development,  with  its  wholesome  local  reac- 
tion, came  the  zeal  for  reform.  The  Groton  Monument  was  built  by  a  lottery 
scheme,  as  were  many  churches  and  colleges  of  those  early  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  But  the  conscience  of  the  churches  steadily  developed 
until  all  gambling,  like  duelling,  was  outlawed.  The  same  deepening  of 
conscience  was  stirred  by  human  slavery  and  did  its  full  share  in  the  awak- 
ened nation,  first  with  abolition  societies  and  later  with  the  stern  tramp  of 
soldiers  marching  southward.  The  equally  grave  curse  of  intemperance  be- 
came more  and  more  evident.  In  181 1  we  note  the  occurrence  of  an  ecclesi- 
astical ordination  at  the  Groton  Congregational  Church.  On  the  expense 
account  was  a  large  bill  for  "liquor."  That  was  quite  in  order  in  those  days. 
But  soon  thereafter  we  see  ministers  and  churches  reacting  from  this  growing 
evil  in  society,  and  temperance  organizations  sprang  up  throughout  the 
county  and  made  no  compromise  with  the  use  of  alcoholic  drink  until  at 
length  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  made  an  outlaw  of  it  also.  The  Groton 
Banks  Temperance  Society-  was  one  of  the  earlier  active  agencies  to  bring 
this  about.     Orphanages,  asylums,  hospitals,  followed  w-th  the  marked  im- 


2;6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

provements  in  education.  In  every  one  of  these  vital  reforms  the  churches 
of  the  county  have  taken  a  leading  part,  originating  most  of  them. 

The  distinctive  work  for  young  men  and  later  for  young  women  among 
all  denominations  seemed  to  grow  out  of  the  needs  made  manifest  by  the 
Civil  War.  The  Christian  Endeavor  movement  came  speedily  to  South- 
eastern Connecticut,  followed  by  the  Baptist  Young  People's  Union  and  the 
Epworth  League,  the  Knights  of  King  Arthur,  the  Camp  Fire  Girls  and 
the  Boy  and  Girl  Scouts.  Later  the  Knights  of  Columbus  and  the  Holy 
Name  Society  took  their  strong  places  in  the  life  of  the  Catholic  churches. 

The  Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrews  and  men's  clubs  of  various  names  have 
been  established  in  many  of  the  churches,  and  have  added  marked  strength 
to  the  work  of  the  churches.  Perhaps  the  most  active  of  all  these  men's 
organizations  is  "The  Layman's  League."  This  is  an  interdenominational 
organization.  It  has  been  especially  efficient  in  New  London  and  through- 
out the  southern  townships  of  the  county.  -Mention  should  be  made  of  the 
Baraea  classes  that  have  gathered  large  groups  of  men  for  continuous  study 
of  the  Bible  in  various  parts  of  the  county,  and  especially  in  Norwich  and 
New  London. 

Never  has  the  modern  force  of  free,  voluntary,  cooperative,  religious 
organization  shown  itself  more  powerful  and  fundamental  in  New  London 
county  than  in  the  services  rendered  by  the  churches  of  the  county  in  the 
Great  War  (1917-18).  The  note  of  patriotism  rang  true  and  convincingly 
from  every  pulpit.  Honor  rolls  and  flags  arose  in  every  place  of  worship. 
No  organization  within  these  churches  failed  to  do  its  part.  Proclamations 
from  Governor  and  President  were  read  so  frequently  at  the  services  that  it 
became  evident  that,  whatever  the  pressing  need,  the  churches  w^ere  a  chief 
avenue  to  the  intelligence,  the  hearts,  the  conscience  and  the  pockets  of  the 
several  communities  of  the  count}'. 

The  close  relation  of  the  churches  to  education  in  New  London  county 
has  been  marked  from  the  first.  The  common  school  at  once  followed  the 
church  in  every  community.  Academies  and,  later,  high  schools,  sprang  up 
in  all  the  centers,  fostered  at  first  in  pastors'  studies  until  separate  buildings 
were  inevitable.  Norwich  Free  Academy  in  the  northern  section  still  retains 
the  old  name.  It  also  does  the  high  school  work  for  Norwich  and  its  environs. 
Indeed,  the  remains  of  most  of  the  old  academies  are  seen  in  the  form  of 
endowed  high  schools,  like  those  in  New  London,  North  Stonington  and 
Mystic.  The  Norwich  Free  Academy  furnishes  us  with  a  typical  New  Eng- 
land scene.  The  camera  brings  into  view  the  monument  to  Uncas,  the 
Mohegan  Indian  chieftain  who  sold  the  nine-mile  tract  to  the  original  settlers 
of  Norwich  Town,  then  the  ancient  colonial  mansion,  once  a  tavern  that  har- 
bored George  Washington  and  is  now  the  parsonage  of  the  Park  Congrega- 
tional Church,  and  in  the  background  to  the  right  the  fine  lines  of  the  Gothic 
Park  Church,  and  the  Free  Academy  to  the  left. 

The  famous  Plainfield  and  Lebanon  (Moor's  Indian  Charity  School) 
schools  were  in  territory  once  a  part  of  the  county.  Eleazer  Wheelock, 
founder  of  Dartmouth  College,  was  a  strong  leader  in  the  churches  of  the 
county. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  277 

The  Collegiate  School  of  Connecticut  (later  Yale  College)  began  its  work 
in  the  parsonage  of  Rev.  Abraham  Pierson,  at  Killingworth  (now  Clinton), 
then  an  important  part  of  New  London  county.  In  1707  we  find  its  three 
lower  classes  established  at  Saybrook  Point,  and  practically  in  charge  of 
Rev.  Thomas  Buckingham,  the  pastor.  The  minister  of  the  First  Church  of 
Christ  in  New  London,  the  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  was  prominent  in  all  those 
early  days  in  the  institution,  and  later  as  Governor  of  the  Colony  had  the 
influence  that  finally  located  the  College  at  New  Haven. 

The  Connecticut  College  for  Women,  located  in  New  London,  was  not 
so  directly  the  outcome  of  the  churches  as  was  Yale  University,  but  in  all 
the  initial  steps  leading  to  the  starting  of  the  College  and  the  choice  of  its 
location  and  in  the  raising  of  nine-tenths  of  its  funds  for  its  first  half  dozen 
crucial  years,  the  pastors  and  the  churches  of  Greater  New  London  were 
most  active  and  influential.  It  is  recognized  that  no  other  single  agency 
ever  established  in  the  county  has  promised  so  large  and  pervasive  and 
unlimited  a  spiritual  power  for  this  section  of  the  State.  Already  it  has 
become  the  center  of  activities  in  close  cooperation  with  the  churches  of  all 
denominations,  as  well  as  with  the  schools. 

Before  closing  this  brief  general  introductory  review  of  the  religious 
development  in  New  London  county  through  the  churches,  just  a  word  must 
be  said  as  to  the  marked  reaction  of  the  various  denominations  on  one  another 
within  these  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  and  more  years.  The  original 
churches  in  the  Colony  of  the  Congregational  type  have  had  a  steady  develop- 
ment from  the  first.  While  keeping  to  the  autonomous  principle,  they  have 
cooperated  more  and  more  closely  in  associational  forms  and  have  been  largely 
influenced  by  the  free  and  warm-hearted  spirit  of  Methodism  and  the  worship- 
ful and  orderly  ideals  of  Episcopacy.  In  turn,  the  principle  of  autonomy, 
fostered  by  the  Congregational  as  well  as  the  Baptist  communions,  has  had 
a  marked  influence  on  Methodism  and  Episcopacy,  bringing  in  each  of  these 
denominations  a  strong  laic  representation  to  the  front  and  making  it  so  that 
each  individual  self-supporting  church  has  practical  control  of  its  ministry 
and  its  local  work.  At  the  same  time  the  centralizing  tendency  in  the 
Episcopal  and  Methodist  churches  has  powerfully  affected  the  plans  for 
efficiency  in  the  more  loosely  ordered  communions.  Of  late  this  decided 
harmonization  of  interdenominational  methods  and  spirit  has  brought  to  the 
front  the  Federation  ideal  which  resulted  in  the  Federation  of  the  Churches 
in  New  London  and  Vicinity.  The  cooperative  spirit  has  promise  in  it  of 
large  things  in  the  future  work  of  the  churches  of  the  county. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  speak  of  "the  good  old  days"  in  the  church  and 
family  life  of  New  England.  While  the  latter  seems  to  be  passing  through 
a  critical  phase  and,  as  yet,  has  not  reached  the  turning  of  the  road,  it  is  not 
a  too  optimistic  judgment  to  say  that  church  life  as  a  whole  was  never  in 
better  condition  in  New  London  county  than  it  is  today.  In  all  outward 
ways  the  outlook  is  reassuring.  The  growth  in  membership,  in  benevolences, 
in  brotherhood,  in  cooperative  efforts  and  in  missionary  zeal,  since  the  Great 
War,  has  been  unprecedented. 


278  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

II. 

THE  COLONIAL  STATE  CHURCH  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

It  is  now  established  that  organized  religion  came  first  to  New  London 
county  in  165 1,  when  the  Rev.  Richard  Blinman  arrived  at  the  five-year-old 
settlement  near  the  mouth  of  the  Pequot  (Thames)  river,  bringing  with  him 
a  substantial  majority  of  his  church,  which  he  had  previously  organized  on 
Congregational  principles  (1642)  at  Gloucester  (Cape  Ann)  Massachusetts. 
The  total  absence  of  all  records  of  any  other  formal  organization  of  a  church 
in  the  new  colonial  venture,  and  the  definite  statements  later  as  to  the  fact 
of  a  church  already  being  in  existence  and  in  full  career  there,  with  Mr. 
Blinman  as  its  pastor,  have  led  inevitably  to  the  above  conclusion.  The  Nor- 
wich Town  church  came  there  full-fledged  from  Saybrook  (organized  there 
1646)  under  the  lead  of  its  pastor,  Rev.  James  Fitch ;  just  as  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker  brought  his  Newtown  (Massachusetts)  church  to  Hartford,  and  the 
Plymouth  (Massachusetts)  church  had  come  from  Leyden,  Holland. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Peters  had  been  associated  from  the  first  (1646)  with 
Governor  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  in  the  beginnings  of  New  London,  and  doubt- 
less had  conducted  occasional  services  in  the  rude  log  huts  in  the  clearing 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  river  before  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Blinman  and  his  fol- 
lowers. The  accomplished  Governor  was  not  unmindful  of  religion,  and  all 
labor  ceased  in  the  little  settlement  as  the  sun  went  down  of  a  Saturday  eve- 
ning, except  as  emergencies  of  war  arose.  The  smoke  curled  up  from  the 
chimneys  of  a  score  or  more  of  crude  log  huts,  as  a  Sabbath  of  rest  had  come. 
The  guard  kept  watch  without  the  stockade,  and  the  goodman  of  each  home 
had  his  weapons  close  at  hand.  As  the  shades  of  night  fell  and  the  owl  hooted 
from  the  primeval  forest  trees  that  hemmed  them  round,  and  mothers  quieted 
the  restless  children  to  sleep,  the  voice  of  Psalm  and  prayer  might  be  heard 
from  the  hearts  that  appreciated  the  Divine  protection  amid  the  haunts  of 
wild  beasts  and  the  skulking  Pequot.  We  can  see  the  little  company,  in  1647 
increased  by  a  number  of  families,  among  them  the  Governor's  own,  gathered 
reverenth'  of  a  Sunday  morning  in  the  most  convenient  audience  room  avail- 
able to  listen  to  Scripture  exposition  and  Puritan  sermon;  and  for  them,  too, 

"The  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods  rang 
To  the  anthem  of  the  free." 

The  advent  in  1651  of  the  church-colony  from  Gloucester,  Massachusetts, 
under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Blinman,  at  once  brought  together  all  the  forces  of 
religion.  The  Governor  and  his  family  and  all  the  older  settlers  took  their 
places  with  the  new-comers  in  the  regular  parish  life  now  fully  established, 
it  being  the  thirty-fifth  church  to  be  planted  in  New  England  under  colonial 

^  The  story  is  told  of  a  couple  (Jonathan  Rudd  being  the  man)  that  desired  to  be  married 
by  the  Governor.  This  prerogative  belonged  for  nearly  a  generation  to  the  civil  magistrate. 
About  1685  clergymen  were  legalized  to  perform  the  ceremony  as  well  as  the  magistrates. 
John  Winthrop  could  not  legally  overstep  the  boundary  into  the  Connecticut  colony  to  render 
such  a  service,  even  though  he  had  been  formerly  at  the  head  of  the  Saybrook  colonial 
enterprise.  So  he  made  his  way  through  the  snow  that  winter's  day  to  the  stream  separating 
the  two  colonies.  Beside  its  frozen  waters  on  his  ov.-n  territory  he  pronounced  the  eager 
couple  to  be  man  and  wife.  Hence  Bride  Brook  and  Bride  Pond  or  Lake,  near  the  modern 
Connecticut  Farm  for  Women  in  Niantic. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW   LONDON  COUNTY  279 

jurisdiction.  Their  first  minister  was  of  Welsh  extraction  and  brought  with 
him  from  Gloucester  the  ancestors  of  the  Calkins,  Coits,  Averys,  Lesters  and 
others,  in  all  over  twenty  families,  with  a  total  of  one  hundred  souls. 

The  earliest  place  for  worship  was  a  transformed  barn  owned  by  Robert 
Park,  situated  on  "Meeting  House  Hill,"  near  which  in  1653  a  place  for 
burial  was  set  apart.  A  drum  called  the  assembly  for  worship  in  the  crude 
structure.  Plans  were  at  once  laid  for  the  erection  of  a  regular  church  build- 
ing on  the  south  side  of  the  old  burial  ground.  This  first  church  was  com- 
pleted and  first  used  in  1655.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  modest  place  of  worship, 
but  with  a  tower  commanding  wide  views  down  the  river  and  harbor,  being 
a  point  of  civic  and  military  importance  as  well  as  the  religious  center.  It 
had  galleries  and  a  high  pulpit,  being  probably  quite  the  best  building  in 
the  settlement. 

The  parish  extended  from  the  Pawcatuck  river  to  Bride  brook,  which 
was  considered  the  western  edge  of  the  Massachusetts  jurisdiction  under 
which,  at  the  first,  John  W^inthrop,  Jr.,  was  operating.  It  also  extended 
northward  somewhat  indefinitely  through  Montville  to  the  Norwich  line  and 
included  the  modern  Ledyard  and  North  Stonington.  One  of  the  earliest 
records  speaks  of  Thomas  Miner,  who  had  moved  to  Pawcatuck  in  1652,  and 
Captain  Denison  as  having  serious  differences  of  opinion  with  their  minister, 
Mr.  Blinir.an,  over  the  proposed  erection  of  a  town  of  Mystic  and  Pawcatuck, 
which  conflict  was  healed  two  }  ears  later.  Minister's  rates  were  levied  by 
the  voters  over  this  wide-extended  parish.  Mr.  Blinman  undertook  to  hold 
occasional  services  in  the  more  remote  sections,  especially  to  the  east  across 
the  Thames  river.    He  was  deeply  interested  in  preaching  to  the  Indians. 

The  short  pastorate  of  Mr.  Blinman  came  to  an  unexpected  end  in  1658  for 
no  special  reason  that  can  be  ascertained.'  He  was  accounted  a  man  of  learn- 
ing and  high  ability,  and  a  natural  leader.  On  occasion  he  was  sent  to  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  to  represent  Pequot  on  business  of  impor- 
tance. He  was  a  non-conformist  and  Puritan  of  the  straightest  sect,  a  sturdy, 
frugal  pioneer,  who  well  set  the  pace  for  the  religious  development  of  the 
settlement  and  the  county. 

For  three  years  the  parish  of  Pequot  (changed  to  New  London  in  1658 
by  order  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts)  sought  a  successor  for  Mr. 
Blinman.  In  the  meanwhile  they  were  supplied  by  preachers  when  available. 
Sometimes  a  Mr.  John  Tinker,  rate-maker,  collector  and  commissioner,  as 


*  It  is  surmised  that  he  was  not  in  harmony  with  the  more  and  more  prevalent  plan  of 
the  "Half-way  Covenant."  a  modification  of  church  membership  rot  anticipated  by  the  found- 
ers of  New  England,  who  expected  that  those  who  should  become  members  of  the  church 
would  give  reasonable  proof  of  "regeneration,"  and  that  children  of  only  such  should  be 
baptized.  But  a  large  number  of  the  children  of  the  first  colonists  did  not  seek  admission 
to  the  church  and  so  the  grandchildren  were  left  without  baptism,  with  terrible  consequences 
in  case  these  died  before  they  themselves  were  baptized  at  their  ovn  instance.  The  pressure 
became  so  great  that  during  the  last  half  of  the  17th  century  the  churches  gave  temporarily 
a  new  plan  to  such,  v.-hereby  parents  of  good  standing  in  the  community,  whose  parents  in 
turn  had  been  members  of  the  church,  could  bring  their  children  for  baptism,  even  thougli 
they  themselves  were  not  full  members.  They  had  to  make  certain  acknowledgements  of  a 
purpose  to  give  themselves  to  God  in  Christ,  to  endeavor  to  walk  according  to  the  rules  of 
that  holy  religion  all  their  days  and  bring  up  their  children  to  fear  Gcd.  Under  these  con- 
ditions of  a  "Half-way  Covenant"  their  children  could  be  baptized. 


28o  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

well  as  an  assistant  in  the  affairs  in  the  Colony  and  licensed  to  distill  and 
retail  liquors,  often  "exercised  in  public  at  religious  meetings  until  the  arrival 
of  the  new  minister."  The  open  town  meeting  at  this  time  and  for  several 
generations  following  passed  upon  all  business  affairs  of  the  church,  including 
the  calling  of  the  minister.  The  Colonial  legislature  also  had  spiritual  over- 
sight of  creed  and  discipline. 

It  was  during  this  interval  that  matters  most  important  for  the  church 
life  of  the  county  (to  be)  were  occurring  elsewhere.  The  crushing  of  the 
Pequots  by  Captain  John  Mason  in  1637  in  the  famous  Mystic  battle,  had 
left  Uncas,  friend  of  the  English,  the  leading  Indian  chieftain  of  the  Mohegan- 
Pequot  remnants,  with  his  residence  at  the  head  of  the  Pequot  estuary  (Nor- 
wich). The  southern  section  of  what  was  to  be  the  county  was  taken  as 
spoil  of  war  by  the  English,  leaving  all  the  northern  watershed  of  the  Thames 
more  or  less  under  the  political  control  of  Uncas  and  his  tribe.  In  August, 
1659,  he  signed  the  famous  deed  of  transfer  of  the  "nine-mile"  tract  to  Captain 
John  Mason  and  his  compatriots,  following  permission  from  the  General  Court 
of  the  Colony  to  plant  a  settlement  on  the  Yantic;  and  so  "Norredge"  became 
a  legal  township  in  1662. 

In  1646  the  Rev.  James  Fitch  had  organized  a  church  at  Saybrook  as  we 
have  seen.  In  1660  he,  with  a  majority  of  his  churchmen,  moved  to  the  fertile 
banks  of  the  Yantic  and  founded  the  Norwich  Town  Congregational  Church. 
The  first  crude  structure  for  religious  purposes  in  this  new  settlement  was 
erected  on  the  southvi'est  corner  of  the  "Green"  or  "Plain,"  with  a  sun  dial 
and  a  horse  block  at  the  door,  and  served  its  purpose  for  twelve  years. 

Mr.  Fitch,  in  this  old  First  Church,  gathered  about  him  a  remarkable 
group  of  men  and  women,  who,  with  their  descendants,  were  destined  to 
render  the  world  as  fine  a  human  result  as  any  company  of  the  same  number 
has  ever  done  on  this  continent.  The  parish  extended  throughout  the  nine- 
mile  tract,  which  was  made  a  legal  township  in  1662,  as  has  been  noted.  It 
faced  somewhat  different  problems  as  a  church  and  community  than  those 
found  in  the  adjacent  seaport  settlement  of  New  London.  The  center  of 
Indian  life  was  near  at  hand.  Mr.  Fitch  learned  the  Mohegan  language  and 
sought  to  christianize  the  accessible  tribes.  On  a  Sunday  morning  the  settlers 
near  and  far  rode  in  for  the  church  services,  their  wives  on  pillions  behind 
them.  Every  available  hitching  post  on  the  Green  was  preempted,  as  the 
serious-minded  men  and  women,  and  children,  too,  filled  the  crude  meeting 
house  under  the  lead  of  the  much  beloved  pastor.  While  it  was  the  social 
event  of  the  week,  it  also  had  to  do  with  eternity,  as  they  listened  attentively 
to  the  elaborate  exposition  of  Scripture,  and  the  prayers,  and  sang  out  of  the 
Old  Bay  Psalm  Book  the  hymns  lined  out  by  the  leader. 

When  the  structure  became  inadequate,  they  built  a  new  church  on  the 
top  of  the  steep  hill  to  the  northwest  of  the  Green.  Rumors  of  war  with  thr 
Indians  kept  the  Norwich  settlers  restive,  and  so  they  made  their  church  a 
fortress  and  a  watch  tower.  In  1673  they  began  to  hold  services  on  this 
almost  inaccessible  height,  helping  the  young  and  the  old  and  the  feeble  up 
the  winding  path.  The  guards  kept  watch  beside  the  stacked  rifles  of  the 
men  during  the  service. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  _'Si 

Mr.  Fitch  was  incapacitated  by  a  stroke  of  palsy  in  1674,  and  Jabez  Fitch, 
his  son,  just  out  of  Harvard,  was  asked  to  succeed.  He  helped  them  out  a 
year  or  so  and  then  went  ofif  to  complete  his  studies.  In  the  meanwhile  King 
Philip's  War  (1675-78)  threw  the  whole  settlement  into  confusion.  Uncas 
with  his  Mohegans  stood  faithfully  by  his  English  friends.  Fugitives  from 
every  point  of  the  compass  poured  in  upon  them,  and  a  special  settlement 
was  arranged  for  these  on  the  Shetucket  river  near  Norwich. 

At  last  (1699)  Rev.  John  Woodward  was  inducted  into  the  pastorate, 
his  parish  covering,  besides  the  nine-mile  tract,  Canterbury  and  Windham. 
In  1708  Captain  Rene  Grignon,  a  Huguenot  from  France,  presented  the  town 
with  a  bell,  which  was  hung  in  a  separate  tower  on  the  summit  of  Meeting 
House  Hill,  ringing  every  night  at  nine  o'clock  and  for  Sunday  services. 

But  to  return  to  the  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the  Thames.  The  year 
1661  saw  Rev.  Gershom  Bulkeley  (Harvard  1655)  preaching  in  the  old  First 
Church  of  Christ  in  New  London.  He  came  of  fine  family  connections  in 
both  New  England  and  old  England,  and  brought  to  the  settlement  his  young 
wife,  Sarah  Chauncey,  only  daughter  of  President  Chauncey  of  Harvard. 
With  them  came  also  his  cultured,  widowed  mother,  a  daughter  of  Sir  Richard 
Chitwood  of  England.  This  second  spiritual  leader  of  New  London  was  a 
man  of  marked  strength  of  character  and  of  decidedly  anti-democratic  lean- 
ings. His  ideals  of  a  more  centralized  form  of  church  government  led  to 
differences  of  opinion  with  his  parishioners ;  so,  rather  than  foment  strife,  he 
wisely  relinquished  the  pastorate  in  1665.  He  took  this  measure  under  the 
kindly  protest  of  his  people,  who  had  voted  to  give  him  "liberty  of  conscience 
and  utterance."  He  was  a  learned  man,  skilled  in  languages  and  medicine. 
After  a  decade  as  pastor  at  Wethersfield,  Connecticut,  he  retired  to  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine.  His  gracious  mother  remained  in  New  London  to  the  end 
of  her  life.  His  descendant,  Leonard  Bulkeley,  was  the  founder  of  the 
Bulkeley  school  in  the  same  place.  Another  descendant  was  the  Hon.  Morgan 
G.  Bulkeley,  Governor  of  the  State. 

We  now  come  to  a  more  settled  condition  of  church  affairs  in  New- 
London.  The  new  Colonial  charter,  which  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  secured  from 
the  government  of  Charles  II  in  1662,  allayed  some  of  the  disputes  in  South- 
eastern Connecticut  by  defining  Pawcatuck  river  as  the  eastern  boundary  of 
the  newly  constituted  Colony.  Massachusetts  had  claimed  a  large  section  of 
territory  hereabouts,  but  gracefully  yielded  the  township  of  Southertown, 
which  now  became  a  part  of  Connecticut.  The  New  London  parish  by  that 
arrangement  extended  to  the  Mystic  river. 

Rev.  William  Thompson  had  come  as  a  missionary  to  the  Indians  in 
1667,  when  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  had  granted  8,500  acres  to  a 
tribe  of  Pequct  Indians  under  the  chieftainship  of  Harmon  Garrett.  Beside 
preaching  to  the  natives,  Mr.  Thompson  held  services  in  the  homes  of  the 
planters  (Cheesebrough,  Miner,  Wheeler,  Palmer,  Stanton,  Denisdn,  Gallup, 
etc.),  who  were  restive  at  having  to  go  so  far  to  church  as  New  London. 
Considerable  controversy  thus  arose  in  the  attempt  to  erect  a  separate  church 
in  Mystic  and  Pawcatuck.  The  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  had 
rendered  a  decision  in  1658  that  all  land  east  of  the  Mystic  river  should  belong 


282  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

to  Massachusetts,  and  a  township  of  Southertown  had  been  constituted, 
embracing  also  territory  afterwards  ceded  to  Rhode  Island.  A  humble  meet- 
ing house  seems  to  hdve  been  erected  in  1661,  where  occasional  preaching 
was  had.  Southertown  was  renamed  Mystic  (1665)  and  later  (1666)  Ston- 
ington. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  planters  of  this  section  had  called  Rev.  James  Noyes 
to  take  charge  of  the  religious  life  and  development  in  the  region  east  of  the 
Mystic  river.  Thus  began  a  long  and  very  important  ministry  of  over  fifty 
years  (1719).  For  ten  of  these  years  the  young  minister  was  content  to 
preach  as  a  licentiate  and  delayed  his  ordination  until  1674,  when  a  new 
church  building  was  erected  near  the  present  "Road  Church,"  and  the 
ecclesiastical  organization  was  fully  established  (June  3,  1674).  The  ministry 
of  Mr.  Noyes  was  of  far-reaching  importance.  He  and  his  brother.  Rev. 
Moses  Noyes,  of  Old  Lyme,  were  important  factors  in  the  founding  of  Yale 
College.  The  Stonington  pastor  entered  into  all  the  life  of  his  extensive  parish 
and  shared  with  his  people  to  the  full  the  hardships  of  the  Indian  wars.  He 
seems  to  have  been  skilled  as  a  physician  as  well  as  a  minister,  and  received 
public  recognition  for  his  services  in  the  Narragansett  war. 

This  venerable  church  furnished  the  Colony  and  the  State  with  a  long 
line  of  able  ministers  who  entered  into  all  the  developments  of  spiritual, 
educational  and  social  life  in  Southeastern  Connecticut.  During  the  long 
pastorate  of  Rev.  Ebenezer  Rosseter  (1722-62)  there  was  controversy  as  to 
the  location  of  a  new  church  edifice.  This  resulted  in  the  erection  of  two 
buildings,  the  "West,"  near  the  old  site  on  Agreement  Hill  (1729)  ;  the  other 
the  "East,"  or  the  "Centre"  church,  at  Putnam  Corner.  This  latter  society 
called  as  pastor  Rev.  Nathaniel  Eells  in  1733.  In  1762,  at  the  death  of  Mr. 
Rosseter,  the  two  churches  were  brought  together  under  the  ministry  of 
Mr.  Eells. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  North  Society  in  Stonington  (now  North  Ston- 
ington) was  incorporated  by  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1720  and  was 
organized  in  1721.  After  the  customary  controversy  as  to  the  location  of  the 
church  building  and  the  pressing  problem  of  the  "Half-Way  Covenant," 
occasional  preachers  were  succeeded  by  Rev.  Ebenezer  Russell,  who  was 
ordained  (1727)  at  the  time  the  church  itself  was  fully  organized.  After  the 
death  of  the  first  pastor  (1731)  came  the  remarkable  pastorate  of  Rev.  Joseph 
Fish  (1732-81).  In  spite  of  a  large  "Separatist"  defection  in  1742,  the  min- 
istry of  Mr.  Fish  was  notable,  especially  all  through  the  Revolutionary  War. 

For  thirty-six  years  after  his  death  the  church  had  no  settled  pastor, 
showing  the  sad  case  of  spiritual  decline  everywhere  manifested  in  the  country 
at  large  and  in  New  London  county  in  particular.  In  1817  the  "Separatist" 
and  "Regular"  churches  at  last  came  together  and  reunited  under  the  ministry 
of  Rev.  Joseph  Ayer.' 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Narragansett  War  the  territory  north  of  North 


°  The  following  installed  pastors  have  since  served  this  church  :  Rev.  P—ter  H.  Shaw, 
1837-39;  Rev.  Myron  N.  Morris,  1846-52;  Rev.  Stephen  Hubble,  1S53-69;  Rev.  James  R. 
Bourne,  1873-79;  Rev.  John  W.  Savage,  1881-84;  Rev.  Wm.  B.  Cary,  i8&:-iQoo;  Rev.  Edwin 
Judson  Klock,  19CO-190S;  Rev.  F.  ^I.  Hollister,   1909-1914;   Rev.  O.  D.  Fisher,  1915 — . 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  283 

Stonington  was  set  aside  for  a  new  township,  which  was  named  in  honor  of 
the  volunteers  of  that  war,  Voluntown.  All  well  accredited  soldiers  of  that 
fierce  struggle  were  granted  land  in  the  new  township.  But  it  was  a  long 
time  before  its  rather  remote  fastnesses  were  made  accessible.  Pioneers 
finally  flocked  in  in  numbers  enough  to  warrant  the  "gathering"  of  a  church, 
and  in  1720  the  Onconk  or  "Line"  church  was  built,  one-half  the  structure 
in  Voluntown  and  the  other  half  in  Sterling. 

But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  western  part  of  what  was  New  London 
county,  as  constituted  in  1666  and  for  something  over  a  century  and  a 
quarter  (1785),  embraced  the  huge  township  of  Old  Saybrook,  stretching 
east  and  west  of  the  Connecticut  river  from  Bride  brook  (Niantic)  to  the 
Hammonasset  river  (Clinton).  In  this  territory  there  was  an  earlier  develop- 
ment of  organized  Christianity  than  in  that  now  within  the  county  limits. 
Governor  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  had  first  essayed  to  establish  a  colony  at 
Saybrook  Point  (1635)  in  opposition  to  the  Dutch  claims.  High  ambitions 
seemed  to  have  centered  about  this  strategic  spot.  During  the  contem- 
poraneous civil  disturbances  in  England  it  was  dreamed  that  here,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Connecticut  river,  a  mighty  commonwealth  might  be  planted 
and  fostered  with  the  great  Cromwell  at  its  head  and  John  Milton  to  be  its 
chief  literary  ornament.  Two  Puritan  noblemen.  Lord  Say  and  Lord  Brook, 
were  the  leaders.  The  lingering  glory  of  this  dream  may  have  had  something 
to  do  with  the  location  later  at  Saybrook  of  the  Collegiate  Institute  of  Con- 
necticut in  1701.  But  the  early  dream  faded,  and  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  gave 
over  the  enterprise  to  George  Fenwick,  who  in  turn  sold  out  his  rights  to 
the  Connecticut  Colony  in  1644.  Two  years  later  (1646),  on  the  very  year 
of  the  founding  of  the  New  London  settlement,  the  Old  Saybrook  (Congre- 
gational) church  was  organized  under  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  James  Fitch,  as 
we  have  seen.  He  left  in  1660  with  a  large  portion  of  his  flock  to  found 
Norwich  and  to  establish  a  church  there. 

From  the  first  the  Saybrook  settlement  and  its  parish  included  all  the 
territory  east  of  the  Connecticut  river  and  south  of  East  Haddam  as  far  as 
Bride  brook  in  Niantic.  But  the  broad  estuary  of  the  Connecticut  made  it 
very  difficult  for  the  settlers  east  of  it  to  attend  their  church  at  Saybrook. 
Occasional  preaching  services  were  held  in  that  eastern  section  of  the  parish, 
and  in  1666,  the  very  year  New  London  county  was  legally  constituted  by 
the  General  Assembly,  Rev.  Moses  Noyes  began  to  preach  regularly  east  of 
the  river.  In  1668  a  log  meeting  house  was  erected,  which  served  the  purpose 
until  1689.  Then  a  more  fitting  structure  replaced  the  original  crude  edifice. 
Its  site  was  determined  by  lot,  after  the  usual  sharp  differences  of  opinion. 
After  Mr.  Noyes  had  been  preaching  for  twenty-seven  years  at  Black  Hall 
or  Old  Lyme,  on  March  27,  1693,  he  was  installed  and  the  church  regularly 
organized.  His  very  distinguished  pastorate  lasted  until  1722.  He  pla_\  ed  a 
most  important  part  in  the  founding  of  Yale  College  (at  Saybrook  from 
1701  to  1716)  and  was  a  leader  of  eminence  throughout  the  county  and  the 
colony. 

Rev.  Jonathan  Parsons,  the  third  pastor,  was  an  ardent  participant  in 
the   movement   of    the    Great   Awakening,   which    spread    throughout   New 


284  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

England.  He  was  eminent  as  a  theologian  and  a  revivalist,  receiving  into 
the  membership  of  his  church  288  members  within  fifteen  years.  A  successor, 
Rev.  Stephen  Johnson,  was  also  eminently  successful  in  his  pastorate  of  forty 
years.  Th«  outcome  of  these  labors  and  the  increased  opening  up  of  the 
county  to  settlers  were  the  organizations  of  the  Niantic  church  (1724),  that 
at  Lyme  (1725),  at  Hamburg  (1727),  at  Salem  (1728),  and  Grassy  Hill  (1746). 

Indeed,  the  religious  activities  in  the  southwestern  part  of  what  is  em- 
braced in  New  London  county  of  our  day  were  more  notable  during  its 
colonial  history  than  those  found  in  any  other  section  of  Southeastern  Con- 
necticut, as  the  result  of  revival  interests  prevalent  there.  It  was  to  have 
been  expected  that  this  region  would  be  a  stronghold  of  Congregationalism. 
But  the  early  pre-Revolutionary  promise  was  not  fulfilled.  A  large  colony  of 
religious  recalcitrants  migrated  as  a  body  to  the  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio 
and  founded  the  town  of  New  Old  Lyme  in  Ashtabula  county.* 

But  we  are  far  afield  from  the  story  of  the  "Old  First"  at  New  London, 


'  The  writer  is  familiar  with  the  modern  New  Old  Lyme,  where  only  in  recent  years  has 
there  been  established  an  "Orthodox"  church.  "Free  Love"  and  "Spiritualism"  and  other 
"isms"  originally  prevalent  there  seem  to  indicate  that  the  inhabitants  went  westward  partly 
at  least  to  escape  the  moral  restraints  of  religion.  The  writer  knew  the  clergyman  who 
founded  the  Presbyterian  church  in  New  Old  Lyme  about  1895.  He  was  generously  assisted 
by  a  thoughtful  local  merchant  nominally  a  Spiritualist,  who  endowed  the  Academy  there  and 
eventually  left  his  homestead  for  a  parsonage. 


'  Rogerenes.  Rogerene  Quakers,  Rogerene  Baptists. — This  peculiar  sect  or  social  group 
under  one  or  other  of  these  names  took  its  name  from  John  Rogers,  son  of  James  Rogers 
who  came  from  Milford,  Connecticut,  at  the  instance  of  Governor  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  about 
i6S5-  John  Rogers,  the  son,  grew  up  in  the  membership  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ  in 
New  London.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  a  strong,  eccentric  nature,  who,  in  1674, 
while  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  came  under  the  influence  of  a  small  Sabbatarian  church  and 
there  experienced  a  marked  religious  upheaval,  which  set  him  off  in  his  new  career.  Later 
he  formally  united  with  that  body  by  immersion.  Still  later  he  was  much  influenced  by 
preaching  of  the  Friends  (Quakers).  Finally  he  broke  with  the  Sabbatarians  and  established 
his  own  order,  which  was  neither  Sabbatarian  or  Quaker. 

Among  the  tenets  of  the  new  sect  were  the  following  items  of  creed  and  practice: 

1.  Theologically  it  held  to  the  orthodox  views  concerning:  God  and  the  Trinity. 

2.  It  sought  to  follow  literally  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Apostles. 

3.  It  put  aside  the  Puritan  "Sabbath"  (Lord's  Day)  as  a  day  of  the  week  more  sacred  than 
the  other  six  and  it  inveighed  against  what  it  called  the  "idolatry"  of  Sunday,  although 
holding  its  stated  services  on  that  day. 

4.  It  emphasized  the  sacredness  and  lawfulness  of  work  on  all  seven  days  of  the  week,  and 
boldly  practiced  it  on  Sunday  as  against  colonial  law. 

5.  It  abjured  priestcraft  and  the  salaried  profession  of  the  ministry,  and  refused  to  pay  the 
legal  church  tax. 

6.  It  proclaimed  public  prayers  to  be  pharisaic,  especially  the  "long  prayer." 

7.  It  undertook  to  oppose  the  whole  scheme  of  the  regularly  established  church  and  welcomed 
punishments,  fines,  imprisonments.  A  craze  for  persecution  led  to  most  extravagant 
practices. 

8.  It  used  strictly  New  Testament  methods  in  dealing  with  the  sick,  and  would  not  call  in 
the  aid  of  the  regular  physician.  The  reader  has  noticed  that  many  clergymen  practiced 
medicine  on  occasion. 

9.  The  matrimonial  experiences  of  John  Rogers,  leading  him  to  practice  what  he  consideredto 
be  plurality  of  wives  with  an  Old  Testament  sanction,  and  the  ignoring  of  the  legal  colonial 
ceremony  of  wedlock,  offered  an  example  fruitful  of  unfortunate  family  conditions  outside 
the  law  among  his  followers. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  how  inevitable  was  the  conflict  between  the  ordered  evolution  of 
ecclesiastical  life  in  New  London,  Connecticut,  and  this  erratic  movement.  Refusal  to  attend 
church  services  or  to  pay  the  ministerial  tax,  working  in  the  fields  on  the  Lord's  Day  as  well 
as  traveling  on  Sunday,  all  were  indictable  offenses  calling  for  fine  or  imprisonment.  Often 
the  acts  committed  were  so  contemptible  that  justice  had  hard  work  getting  seasoned  with 
mercy.  No  orderly  assembly  of  Christians  in  the  county  could  reckon  on  an  undisturbed 
meeting.  Violent  noises  outside  the  buildings  were  indulged  in.  The  mischief-makers  boldly 
came  into  the  services,  arose   in  their  places   and   undertook  to  dispute   with   the  preacher. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  2S5 

which  we  left  just  as  it  was  calling  Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet  to  its  pastorate 
in  1G66.  This  was  the  very  year  that  New  London  county  was  fully  consti- 
tuted under  the  new  colonial  charter,  embracing  the  four  townships  of  Say- 
brook,  New  London,  Stonington  and  Norwich.  Mr.  Bradstreet  served  the 
church  as  preacher  four  years  before  his  regular  ordination  in  1670.  Here 
begin  the  first  obtainable  records  of  the  church.  The  threatening  "Half-Way 
Covenant,"  though  spreading  among  the  Connecticut  churches,  was  not  yet 
preached  or  practiced  in  the  New  London  church.  It  was  under  this  pastorate 
that  the  Rogerene  disturbances  began  to  be  troublesome,  gradually  spreading 
throughout  the  county  and  among  all  denominations.' 

The  ordination  of  Mr.  Bradstreet  in  October,  1670,  was  the  first  of  many 
succeeding  such  services  to  be  held  in  New  London  county.  During  his 
pastorate  (about  1685)  ministers  were  given  legal  right  to  officiate  at  wed- 
dings, although  this  privilege  did  not  take  from  the  civil  authorities  their 
prior  right.  During  his  ministry  a  new  church  edifice  was  erected,  not  with- 
out serious  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  location,  high  up  on  the  southwest 
corner  of  Meeting  House  Green,  now  Bulkeley  Square.  The  tower  still 
retained  the  aspect  of  a  watch  tower,  looking  far  down  the  estuary  of  the 
Thames  and  about  among  the  hills  and  valleys  surrounding  the  little  settle- 


brought  in  all  sorts  of  handwork  and  flaunted  their  illegal  industry  before  the  worshipers ; 
and  in  every  other  conceivable  way  attempted  to  spoil  the  service.  On  one  occasion  a 
Rogerene  trundled  a  wheelbarrow  filled  with  saleable  goods  into  the  morning  worship  of  the 
old  First  Church,  and,  before  anyone  could  hinder,  reached  the  communion  table  and  the 
obtruder  turned  and  in  stentorian  voice  offered  his  wares  for  sale.  On  the  whole  the  entire 
community  and  the  churches  and  the  ministers  were  more  persecuted  than  the  Rogerenes, 
who  were  in  a  fair  way  to  make  all  law  contemptible. 

New  London  county  today  is  filled  with  stories  true  and  apochr>-phal  as  to  the  strange 
and  often  ridiculous  doings  of  these  social  conspirators.  It  cannot  be  seen  that  their  outrages 
hastened  the  abatement  of  the  Puritanical  scheme  of  compulsion.  They  continued  until  the 
death  of  John  Rogers  in  1721,  which  was  soon  followed  by  the  death  of  Governor  Saltonstall. 
For  forty  years  thereafter  the  Rogerenes  kept  out  of  the  court  records.  The  leadership 
was  then  in  the  hands  of  wiser  men.  such  as  John  Bolles.  John  \Vaterhou  =  e  and  John  Culver. 
The  conciliatorj'  attitude  of  Rev.  Eliphalet  .A.dams  of  the  First  Church  had  much  to  do  with 
this  interregnum  of  hostility  between  ihe  Rogerenes  and  their  neighbors.  Printed  pamphlets 
and  books  and  itinerant  speakers  carried  their  doctrines  widely  in  New  Efigland.  Settle- 
ments were  made  as  far  afield  as  in  portions  of  the  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio.  One  of  these 
may  have  been  New  Old  Lyme,  of  which  mention  has  been  made.  In  the  meanwhile  gradual 
intermarriages  led  to  a  less  acute  contention.  The  Rogerenes  seemed  to  have  prospered  in 
business  ways  in  spite  of  all  financial  requisitions  upon  their  property  for  fines  and  taxes. 
The  coming  to  New  London  as  pastor  in  the  First  Church  of  Rev.  Mather  Byles,  Jr., 
•n  1757  soon  brought  on  a  "counter-move"  on  the  part  of  the  Rogerenes  which  was  at  its 
zenith  in  1764-66.  Mr.  Byles  began  to  preach  against  the  Rogerenes  and  to  incite  renewed 
discipline  against  Sunday  labor  and  travel,  the  holding  of  unauthorized  meetings,  abstention 
from  regular  church  services  and  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  by  unauthorized  per- 
sons. Court  records  once  more  abound  with  cases  of  trial,  fine  and  imprisonment.  But  the 
close  of  Mr.  Byles'  ministry  (1768)  largely  brought  to  an  end  the  offensive  tactics  of  the 
Rogerenes.  A  general  plan  prevailed  among  the  churches  to  ignore  utterly  the  disturbances 
of  the  malcontents.  The  Revolutionary  War  now  impended.  Many  Rogerenes  proved  patriofs 
to  the  American  cause.  The  sect  seems  to  have  subsided,  as  the  freedom  of  church  attend- 
ance and  voluntary  payment  for  church  expenses  and  a  simplification  of  ecclesiastical  pulpit 
garments  and  ministerial  manners  prevailed. 

Today  a  small  remnant  of  the  sect  may  be  found  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  the 
township  of  Ledyard,  popularly  known  as  Quakertown.  Education  in  public  schools,  the 
modern  newspaper,  less  stringent  sumptuary  laws  and  the  n'cw  age,  have  combined  to  make 
the  Rogerenes  practically  indistinguishable  from  their  neighbors.  "Quaker  Hill,"  "Bolles" 
Woods"  and  many  another  local  designation,  recall  to  mind  the  places  and  personalities 
connected  with  this  strange  and  often  amusing  religious  episode  in  the  long  story  of  New 
London  county. 


286  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

merit.    The  building  was  not  completed  until  1682,  at  the  very  close  of  Mr. 
Bradstreet's  ministry. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  eldest  daughter  of  First  Church  of  Christ  in  New 
London  had  been  fully  established  in  Stonington  in  1674,  not  without  friction 
with  the  mother  church  or  among  its  own  membership.  The  dividing  line 
between  the  two  parishes  v.as  placed  at  the  Mystic  river.  But  even  this  did 
not  stop  the  restiveness  of  the  increasing  numbers  dwelling  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Thames.  These  more  distant  families  were  under  the  leadership  of 
Captain  James  Avery.  In  1684,  as  soon  as  the  old  "Blinman  Church"  building 
in  New  London  was  superceded  by  the  "Bradstreet  Church,"  this  strong  man 
of  the  eastern  part  of  the  parish  bought  the  old  church  building  for  six  pounds 
sterling,  separated  it  into  parts  and  floated  thcr.i  one  by  one  around  to  his 
farm  in  Poquonnock,  and  set  it  up  as  a  part  of  the  homestead  he  was  erecting. 
At  one  time  or  another  this  famous  landmark  was  used  for  informal  religious 
services. 

In  1687  there  came  to  the  New  London  church  by  far  the  most  outstand- 
ing ecclesiastical  figure  ever  connected  with  the  county,  the  Rev.  Gurdon 
Saltonstall,  then  a  man  of  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  only  three  and  a 
half  out  of  Harvard  College.  He  was  not  ordained  in  the  pastorate  of  the 
First  Church  until  November  25,  1691,  and  remained  in  that  position  until 
elected  Governor  of  the  Colony  in  1708,  An  aristocrat  by  birth  and  tempera- 
ment, large,  tall  and  commanding  in  person  and  voice,  a  natural  leader  among 
men,  he  began  at  once  to  exercise  qualities  of  personal  initiative  which  spread 
his  reputation  throughout  the  colony.  Early  in  his  ministry  the  first  bell  in 
the  county  was  hung  in  the  church  tower  and  used  both  for  church  services 
and  for  civil  functions. 

The  "Half-Way  Covenant"  had,  by  this  time,  spread  widelj'  in  Connecti- 
cut and  Massachusetts,  and  there  was  a  serious  declension  in  spiritual  power 
clearly  discernible  everywhere  it  went.  The  low  morale  led  in  1692  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  the  Salem  witchcraft  delusion.  New  London  county  was  for- 
tunately free  from  that  most  unchristian  religious  and  civil  declension.  Mr. 
Saltonstall  was  the  first  clergyman  in  New  London  actually  to  take  advantage 
of  the  new  law  permitting  a  clergyman  to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony. 
He  was  a  powerful  preacher,  somewhat  stern  in  church  discipline  and  provoca- 
tive of  trouble  with  the  Rogerenes.  His  severe  attitude  toward  restive  parish- 
ioners east  of  the  Thames,  especially  toward  Captain  James  Avery,  widened 
the  previous  estrangements.  These  culminated  in  1702  in  a  request  to  the 
General  Assembly  for  a  separate  church  organization  in  that  portion  of  the 
parish  and  township.  This  was  consummated  in  1704.  On  the  8th  of  No- 
vember of  that  year,  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge  was  ordained  as  the  first 
minister  and  the  First  Church  of  Christ  in  Groton  fully  organized.  In  1705 
Groton  township  was  set  off  from  New  London,  and  the  Ecclesiastical  Society 
of  the  church  received  its  permanent  name.  On  the  year  following  (1705) 
the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Groton  was  organized  at  Old  Mystic. 

But  in  spite  of  elements  that  awakened  opposition  within  and  without 
the  church,  Mr.  Saltonstall  was  a  man  of  singular  power  as  a  preacher  and 
as  a  man.    His  influence  spread  throughout  the  colony  to  such  an  extent  that 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  287 

at  the  death  of  Governor  Fitz-John  Winthrop  (1698-1707),  his  parishioner, 
all  eyes  turned  to  this  pastor  as  the  most  fitting  successor  in  the  guber- 
natorial chair.  This  political  advancement  occurred  on  January  i,  1708,  after 
a  pastorate  of  nearly  tv»'enty  years,  or  sixteen  years  after  his  ordination.' 

In  the  meanwhile,  matters  of  very  considerable  moment  had  been  occur- 
ring in  the  northern  portion  of  the  county.  The  First  Church  of  Christ  at 
Norwich  Town,  after  the  disturbances  of  the  Indian  wars,  had  experienced 
a  notable  expansion.  To  the  east  across  the  Shetucket  river  on  land  purchased 
from  the  Mohegan  Indians,  the  inhabitants  were  granted  a  township  charter 
under  the  name  of  Preston,  in  1687.  They  set  at  work  at  once  to  have  an 
organized  church  of  their  own.  They  were  a  sturdy  band,  with  household 
names  such  as  Brewster,  Standish  (of  "Mayflower"  descent),  Park,  Tracy, 
Richards,  Tyler,  Fobes,  Morgan,  Witter,  Wetch,  so  ran  the  names,  who 
cleared  the  forests  and  tilled  the  rich  lands  of  Preston.  In  faith  they  built  a 
church  and,  after  long  search,  secured  Rev.  Salmon  Treat  to  be  their  minister. 
He  was  ordained  at  the  organization  of  the  church  on  November  16,  1698. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  fruitful  pastorate  extending  through  forty-six 
years.  One  of  the  important  results  of  his  ministry  was  the  peaceful  estab- 
lishment of  the  North  Church  of  Preston  (now  Griswold)  in  1720. 

At  this  last-mentioned  church  the  Rev.  Ilezekiah  Lord,  immediately  on 
its  organization,  took  up  the  pastorate,  which  lasted  until  1761.    These  were 


'  Gurdon  Saltonstall  was  re-elected  colonial  Governor  from  year  to  year  until  his  death 
in  1724.  The  unprecedented  elevation  of  a  clergyman  to  this  high  office  was  fully  justified 
by  the  wise  statesmanship  exhibited  by  the  incumbent.  Thomas  Hooker,  Gurdon  Saltonstall, 
Lyman  Beecher  and  Horace  Bushnell  are  four  out  of  a  score  of  Connecticut  clergymen  who 
proved  powerful  factors  in  the  building  up  of  the  State  and  the  nation.  As  Governor,  Mr. 
Saltonstall  at  once  exercised  his  leadership  by  summoning  at  Saybrook,  with  the  as'ent  of 
the  General  Assembly,  a  Synod  to  examine  "the  defects  of  the  discipline  of  the  churches  of 
this  government  arising  from  the  want  of  a  more  explicit  asserting  of  the  rules  given  to 
that  end  in  the  Scriptures."  Hence  that  memorable  though  small  ecclesiastical  gathering  at 
the  next  Commencement  season  of  the  Collegiate  Institute  (later  Yale  College)  then  estab- 
lished at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  river.  On  September  7,  1708,  this  Synod  brought  forth 
the  famous  "Saybrook  Platform,"  which  was  successfully  to  contest  place  with  the  "Cam- 
bridge Platform"  (16.48)  in  the  apprtival  of  the  great  majority  of  the  churches  of  Con- 
necticut. An  important  exception  to  this  approval  occurred  in  the  Governor's  old  church, 
New  London  First,  of  which  he  still  remained  a  member  and  a  regular  worshipper.  Nor 
did  it  stand  alone.  The  "Saybrook  Platform"  was  accepted  by  the  General  Assembly,  which 
"ordained  that  all  the  churches  within  this  government  that  are  or  shall  be  united  in  doctrine, 
worship  and  discipline,  I'c  and  ffir  the  future  shall  be  owned  and  acknowledged  by  law;  pro- 
vided always  that  nothing  herein  shall  be  intended  or  construed  to  hinder  or  prevent  any 
church  or  society  that  is  or  shall  be  allov-fcd  by  the  laws  of  the  government,  who  soberly 
differ  or  dissent  from  the  united  churches  herebj'  established,  from  exercising  worship  and 
discipline  in  their  own  way  according  to  their  consciences." 

By  law,  the  churches  of  each  county  were  to  form  one  or  more  "consociations"  or 
Standing  Councils  before  which  all  cases  of  discipline,  difficult  of  settlement  by  the  local 
church,  should  come,  as  well  as  certain  matters  having  to  do  with  ordinations,  installations 
and  dismissions.  In  similar  fashion  the  ministers  of  each  county  were  to  be  formed  into 
"Associations"  which  should  in  turn  send  delegates  annually  to  a  "General  Association"  of 
colony-wide  representations.  The  latter  is  still  in  existence,  though  now  not  a  delegated 
body,  except  as  any  regularly  settled  Congregational  minister  in  the  State  is  invited  tc 
attend.  The  Saybrook  Platform  remained  legally  in  effect  until  1784,  and  as  a  recognized 
standard  for  more  than  a  half  century  after  that. 

Governor  Saltonstall  also  was  influential  in  the  final  settlement  of  Yale  College  at  New 
Haven.  At  its  first  Commencement  at  that  place  he  pronounced  an  oration  in  Latin  (Sept. 
12,  1718)  and  its  Latinity  was  accounted  of  high  grade.  He  ever  stood  high  in  the  councils 
of  the  College.  What  with  Indian  and  French  wars,  Colony  disputes,  high  prices,  territorial 
adjustments  with  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  the  times  called  for  leadership  of  a  high 
order,  and  the  Governor  vjas  easily  the  foremost  man  in  the  colony  in  his  time. 


288  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

the  difficult  pioneering  days  at  that  end  of  the  county.  Mr.  Lord  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Rev.  Levi  Hart  in  a  still  more  distinguished  ministry  lasting  from 
1762  to  1808.  Mr.  Hart  had  studied  theology  with  the  famous  Dr.  Bellamy, 
of  Bethlehem,  Connecticut,  and  married  his  daughter.  He  had  one  of  those 
remarkable  life-ministries  in  Griswold,  exerting  a  lasting  influence  in  his 
own  parish  and  widely  over  the  State.  His  wisdom  and  charity  handled  the 
"Separatist"  movement  in  his  section  so  effectively  that  no  opposition  congre- 
gations were  "gathered"  there.  He  took  great  interest  in  Home  Missions  in 
Connecticut  and  northern  New  England,  resulting  in  the  organization  of 
the  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut,  the  oldest  one  in  the  country. 

Between  Norwich  and  Preston,  on  a  narrow  strip  of  territory  about 
twelve  miles  long,  later  joined  to  Preston,  in  what  was  before  that  called 
East  Norwich,  we  find  the  "Long  Society"  (Fifth  Congregational  Church  of 
Norwich),  established  in  1726.  Rev.  Jabez  Wight  was  pastor  there  for  fifty- 
six  years. 

But  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  this,  came  the  settlement  of 
Lebanon  and  the  founding  of  its  First  Church  of  Christ  in  1700  in  what  was 
to  become  a  famous  historic  center  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  In 
1702  it  was  included  in  New  London  county.  The  "five-mile"  purchase  from 
the  Indians  had  come  in  1697.  The  pioneers  began  the  opening  out  of  the  land 
in  the  following  year  and  the  town  was  formally  organized  in  1700,  the  church 
being  there  practically  from  the  first  (organized  November  7,  1700).  The 
meeting  house  was  built  at  the  west  end  of  the  "Green,"  near  what  became 
later  the  "Land  OfRce"  of  Governor  Trumbull. 

Within  twenty  years  the  growth  of  the  wide-extended  community  called 
for  the  establishment  of  a  North  Parish  or  Second  church,  in  what  was 
styled  Lebanon  Crank  (now  Columbia)  (1720).  There  fifteen  years  later 
(1735)  Rev.  Eleazar  Wheelock,  son  of  Deacon  Ralph  Wheelock  and  Ruth 
Huntington  (Norwich),  was  settled.  From  these  two  foci  of  religious  life  the 
uplifting  influence  of  the  Lebanon  churches  spread  widely.  In  the  First 
Church  there  were  two  remarkable  pastorates,  together  covering  over  a  cen- 
tury— that  of  Rev.  Solomon  Williams,  D.D.  (1722  to  1771),  and  Rev.  Zebulon 
Elv  (1782  to  1824).  From  these  two  churches  there  grew  up  the  Goshen 
Church  (November  26,  1729),  Exeter  (1773),  and  Liberty  Hill.  Largely 
owing  to  the  schools  established  in  Lebanon  proper  (Tisdale's  Academy)  at 
North  Lebanon  (Moor's  Charity  School)  and  at  Plainfield  (Academy)  the 
homes  of  those  pioneers  sent  forth  within  a  century  over  forty  ministers. 

In  close  connection  with  this  development,  the  churches  of  Plainfield  and 
Canterbury  were  organized.  There  seems  some  dispute  as  to  just  which 
county  the  credit  for  those  earlier  years  shall  go.  But  it  is  certain  that  the 
impetus  came  from  the  south.  The  Plainfield  church  was  organized  in  what 
was  then  called  the  Quinebaug  Plantations,  on  January  3,  1705.  They  called 
their  first  pastor  from  Norwich,  Rev.  Joseph  Coit,  who  originated  in  New 
London.  He  ministered  to  the  church  for  forty-nine  years.  The  Canterbury 
church  was  organized  in  1711,  while  its  parish  was  in  New  London  county. 
Together  with  Plainfield,  it  brought  forth  men  and  women  of  wide  influence 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  289 

in  the  nation  at  large.     Moses  Cleveland,  the  founder  of  the  metropolis  of 
Ohio,  went  forth  from  Canterbury. 

The  First  Church  of  Colchester,  on  the  Connecticut  river  watershed,  v^'as 
organized  in  1703,  soon  followed  by  the  Westchester  church  in  the  same 
township  in  1729.  Rev.  John  Bulkeley,  son  of  Rev.  Gershom  Bulkeley,  M.D., 
whom  we  met  in  New  London  as  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  was  the  first 
pastor  of  the  Colchester  church,  beginning  a  long  line  of  distinguished  min- 
isters. The  temporary  house  of  worship  was  exchanged  for  a  better  after 
1709,  and  in  1771  a  new  structure  came,  which  was  counted  "the  finest  in 
the  colony."  The  Westchester  parish  in  the  northern  part  of  the  township 
had  an  equally  strong  development  with  a  faithful  series  of  influential  pastors, 
beginning  with  Rev.  Judah  Lewis. 

There  was  a  long  controversy  with  the  alleged  Indian  owners  as  to  the 
southern  portion  of  the  town  of  Colchester,  which  delayed  settlement  for 
many  years,  but  at  last  a  township  of  Salem  was  set  ofif  by  the  General 
Assembly,  made  up  of  portions  of  south  Colchester  and  northern  Lyme,  and 
settlers  came  in.    A  church  was  organized  in  1728,  as  previously  noted. 

The  Norwich  Town  church  went  strongly  forward  under  the  pastorate 
of  Rev.  John  Woodward  for  a  decade,  giving  forth  helpfulness  in  every  direc- 
tion, as  we  have  seen.  Mr.  Woodward  was  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  Say- 
brook  Synod,  of  which  he  was  the  secretary,  and  thus  largely  responsible  for 
the  Platform  adopted  in  1708.  On  his  return  he  found  he  could  not  carry 
his  church  with  him.  The  friction  thus  arising  paved  the  way  to  a  rupture 
of  the  pastoral  relation  in  September,  1716.  In  the  meanwhile  a  new  church 
building  was  erected,  after  the  usual  quarrel  over  the  location,  near  the  site 
of  the  old  one  on  the  Meeting  House  Hill.  This  new  house  of  worship  was 
opened  for  use  in  December,  1713.  Mr.  Woodward  retired  from  the  min- 
isterial profession  and  spent  his  last  days  on  his  farm  in  West  Haven,  Con- 
necticut. 

That  section  of  Norwich  called  "West  Farms,"  a  few  miles  to  the  north- 
west of  the  Green,  constituted  the  most  fertile  section  of  the  "nine-mile" 
tract,  and  was  portioned  out  in  sections  to  the  occupants  of  the  Town  Plot. 
This  new  region  was  gradually  cleared  and  settled  by  some  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  Norwich.  A  notable  lot  of  families  established  themselves  there. 
Efforts  had  been  making  for  some  years  to  secure  a  separate  ecclesiastical 
society  in  that  flourishing  section.  When  two  score  families  there  set  about 
getting  this  done,  their  requests  were  granted  and  on  October  8,  1718,  Rev. 
Henry  Willis  was  ordained  pastor  and  a  church  organized,  what  is  now  known 
as  the  Franklyn  church.  The  new  building  was  barely  housed  in,  and  use 
was  made  of  the  old  furniture  of  the  former  Norwich  church  at  the  start. 

Mr.  Willis,  though  a  graduate  in  171 5  of  the  Connecticut  Collegiate 
Institute  at  Saybrook  (later  Yale  College),  was  a  strong  adherent  of  the 
Cambridge  Platform  (1648)  as  distinguished  from  the  Saybrook  Platform 
(1708),  which  quite  pleased  his  people  for  twenty-six  years.  But  by  that  time 
friction  arose  in  the  parish ;  Saybrook  adherents  made  trouble.  "Separatist" 
movements  were  under  way  and,  in  spite  of  the  powerful  revivals  of  the 
Great  Awakening,  the  pastorate  came  to  an  end  in  1750. 

N.L.— 1-19 


290  XEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

But  about  the  time  of  the  founding  of  this  strong  daughter  of  the  Norwich 
church,  a  new  pastor  came  to  that  church,  Rev.  Benjamin  Lord,  who  was 
ordained  November  20,  1717,  also,  at  the  first,  a  strong  opponent  of  the  Say- 
brook  Platform.  On  April  30th  of  that  same  year  the  church  had  voted  to 
sustain  itself  by  contributions  rather  than  by  the  old  State-Church  rate, 
anticipating  the  Old  First  at  New  London  by  ten  years.  We  note  a  revival 
in  1721  and  great  activity  during  the  times  of  the  Great  Awakening,  which 
was  judiciously  favored  by  Mr.  Lord,  who,  however,  revolted  at  many  of  the 
eccentricities  that  arose. 

The  Lisbon  church  (Newent)  was  organized  in  1723  with  Rev.  Daniel 
Kirkland,  whose  pastorate  lasted  until  1752. 

We  now  turn  back  again  to  the  southern  part  of  the  county  and  to  the 
First  Church  at  New  London.  The  remarkable  ministry  of  Rev.  Gurdon 
Saltonstall  terminated  by  his  election  to  the  governorship.  It  was  followed 
by  the  still  more  fruitful  ministry  of  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams,  extending  from 
1709  to  1753.  He  was  the  last  pastor  ordained  by  the  township,  showing  the 
changing  order,  as  church  and  State  began  to  be  separated.  Three  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  persons  were  added  to  the  church  membership  during  this 
long  ministry.  The  powerful  revival  interest  incident  upon  the  Great  Awak- 
ening impressed  itself  upon  the  old  church,  especially  in  1740-41.  The  Half- 
Way  Covenant,  introduced  into  the  church  during  the  previous  pastorate, 
still  continued,  although  there  was  a  manifest  difference  between  those  ad- 
mitted on  deep  conviction  during  the  revival  period.  The  children  of  all 
those  living  exemplary  lives  and  whose  ancestors  had  made  a  "serious  pro- 
fession of  religion"  were  baptized. 

In  October,  1772,  the  North  Parish  (Montville)  was  constituted  a  dis- 
tinct parish,  the  church  organized,  and  Rev.  Tames  Hillhouse  installed  as 
pastor.  He  continued  in  this  position  for  fifteen  years.  His  successor.  Rev. 
David  Jewett,  was  ordained  October  3,  1739.  A  dance  (strange  to  say)  and 
a  supper  gave  this  occasion  the  title  of  the  "Ordination  Ball." 

The  East  Lyme  (Niantic'l  church  was  organized  in  1724,  its  parish  being 
known  as  "The  Second  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  Lyme."  with  Rev.  George 
Griswold  as  pastor.  This  minister,  of  high  social  rank  and  a  graduate  of 
Yale  College,  was  a  strong  preacher  and  widely  useful  as  a  spiritual  leader. 

On  January  23,  1727,  the  Old  First  Church  of  Christ  in  New  London 
form-all^•  broke  away  from  the  old  order  of  township  direction  and  organized 
the  "First  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  New  London."  an  incorporated  body 
which  took  over  the  financial  responsibility  for  the  conduct  of  the  church, 
as  distinguished  from  the  old  plan  of  universal  taxation  for  the  support  of 
the  ministry.  The  other  churches  of  the  county  did  the  same.  This  placed 
the  churches  of  other  denominations  on  an  equal  footing  financially  and  the 
new  day  was  ushered  in. 

In  1727  a  "Relief"  law  was  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Colony,  exempting  the  members  of  the  Church  of  England  from  compulsory' 
attendance  on  the  Puritan  State-Church  and  payment  of  minister's  rates, 
provided  there  was  a  regularly  ordained  Church  of  England  minister  estab- 
lished and  performing  the  duties  cf  his  cfifice. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  291 

The  revolution  or  evolution  involved  in  this  change  went  down  to  the 
roots  of  the  matter.  It  did  not  come  suddenly,  but  spread  steadily  all  over 
the  county,  the  Colony  (later  State)  and  New  England.  It  was  in  harmony 
with  the  growing  democracy,  and  came  as  a  matter  of  justice  and  common 
sense.  We  have  noted  all  along  the  tendencies  to  break  away  from  the  old 
established  order  of  things,  as  "Separatist"  congregations  sprang  up  in 
almost  every  section  of  the  county.  Good  Yankee  common  sense  prevailed. 
A  glimpse  of  it  is  seen  in  the  provisions  of  the  "Saybrook  Platform,"  where 
other  possible  types  of  religious  organization  were  clearly  in  mind.  The  close 
proximity  of  Rhode  Island,  with  its  broader  handling  of  this  same  problem 
from  the  first,  doubtless  had  a  strong  influence.  The  lack  of  a  Biblical  New 
Testament  precedent  for  the  old  New  England  order  was  a  weakness.  Doubt- 
less, too.  the  mighty  upheaval  of  the  Great  Awakening  had  much  to  do  with 
the  structural  change  of  organized  church  life.  A  new  individualism  pervaded 
the  community,  and  the  church  life  felt  the  transformation.  A  State-Church 
more  and  more  seemed  an  inconsistency.  Other  denominations  were  pressing 
in,  even  though  their  adherents  were  asked  to  pay  the  church  tax  for  the 
regular  ministry.  Two  Baptist  churches  and  one  Episcopalian  church  were 
already  firmly  established  wnthin  the  count;.'  and  others  came  thick  and  fast. 
The  story,  whose  brief  outline  we  are  following,  now  breaks  up  into  strictly 
denominational  divisions,  which  we  must  trace  out  one  by  one. 

IIL 

THE  CONGREGATIONAL  DENOMINATION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTS' 

The  Congregational  churches  in  the  territory  of  what  is  now  known  as 
New  London  county,  at  the  time  of  the  gradual  transition  from  the  position 
of  a  State-Church  to  the  independent  status  of  its  sister  denominations,  num- 
bered about  a  score,  the  most  of  which  were  under  the  leadership  of  strong 
pastors.  These  took  over  by  natural  inheritance  all  that  had  been  developing 
in  the  religious  activities  in  more  strictly  inonecr  days.  The  advantages  in 
this  situation  clearly  outbid  the  disadvantages  and  gave  the  denomination  a 
powerful  leadership  with  all  its  responsiblities. 

It  is  hard  to  date  the  beginnings  of  the  transition,  for  this  wa«  largely 
left  to  local  conditions.  The  movement  seems  to  have  been  accelerated  by 
the  "Great  Awakening"  and  the  sense  of  fair-dealing  with  the  groups  of 
worshippers  outside  the  State-Church.  Out  of  it  all  came,  among  other 
things,  our  Congregational  autonomy.  Its  story  begins  clearly  in  the  Colonial 
period  (1737-1783).  From  then  to  1852  came  the  period  of  theological  conflict, 
the  establishment  of  theological  seminaries,  reconstruction  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, evangelical  revivals,  revived  study  of  the  Bible  through  Sunday  schools, 
and  the  upbuilding  of  missionary  societies  for  home  and  foreign  work  and 
the  beginnings  of  systematic  efforts  for  the  well-being  of  the  negro  (1846). 
With  the  Albany  Convention  (1852),  Congregational  polity  began  to  realize 
its  continent-wide  responsibilities.  The  Connecticut  churches  had  anticipated 
much  that  later  became  constituent  elements  in  this  denominational  self- 
consciousness,  and  for  that  very  reason  in  New  London  county  and  in  the 


292  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

State  found  it  a  little  harder  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  more  radical  central- 
ization adopted  by  the  whole  denomination  in  recent  days. 

Rev.  ■Eliphalet  Adams  at  the  time  of  the  transition  was  in  the  heyday  of 
his  ministry  at  the  First  Church  of  Christ  in  New  London.  He  was  a  man 
of  peace  and  good  will  and  of  much  learning.  He  spoke  the  Indian  languages 
and  preached  on  all  possible  occasions  for  the  Mohegans,  Pequots  and 
Niantics.  He  received  into  his  church  several  of  the  Mohegan  sachems. 
Benjamin  Uncas,  third  of  the  name  and  sixth  Sachem,  he  received  into  his 
own  family.  He  cooperated  with  Samuel  Occum  in  the  establishment  of 
Indian  schools.  August  31,  1735,  the  First  Church  meeting  house  (the 
Saltonstall  building)  was  struck  by  lightning  during  the  service,  with  one 
fatality  and  others  seriously  injured.  After  some  controversy  the  building 
was  repaired  in  1746  and  served  the  organization  for  another  half  century 
(1785).  Under  Mr.  Adams'  kindly  handling,  the  Rogerene  troubles  quieted 
down.  His  preaching  was  sought  for  all  over  the  colony.  He  was  methodical, 
tactful  and  constructive.  Under  such  a  ministry  the  church  survived  easily 
the  withdrawal  of  "Separatists"  and  the  sharing  with  the  Episcopal  church 
of  St.  James  founded  in  1725,  in  the  religious  life  of  the  community. 

Indeed,  in  1724  Mr.  Adams  had  been  invited  to  the  presidency  of  Yale 
College,  of  which  he  had  been  a  trustee  since  1720.  Two  years  after  that 
(1722)  President  Timothy  Cutler,  D.D.,  and  one  of  his  principal  coadjutors, 
had  embraced  Episcopacy.  After  debates  "that  shook  Congregationalism 
throughout  New  England"  (said  President  Quincy  of  Harvard),  it  was  de- 
cided that  the  teachers  at  Yale  in  the  future  must  assent  to  the  Saybrook 
Platform.  A  strong  man  was  needed  to  head  the  College,  and  Mr.  Adams 
was  elected  president.  However,  he  declined  the  honor  and  went  on  with 
the  pastorate. 

His  name  does  not  appear  as  one  of  the  lights  of  the  Great  Awakening. 
He  was  not  unsympathetic,  and  was  glad  to  see  great  good  come  to  his  parish 
and  the  county  from  the  movement.  But  his  wisdom  and  serenity  were  much 
exercised  to  curb  the  eccentricities  that  abounded  in  the  meetings  held 
under  the  leaders  of  that  type.  In  1741  Mr.  Adams  found  himself  in  the 
midst  of  a  powerful  revival  interest,  and  eighty-two  persons  were  received 
into  the  church.  The  Separatist  movement  in  New  London  grew  out  of  the 
eccentric  preaching  of  John  Davenport,  and  some  one  hundred  withdrew 
from  the  First  Church.  Only  the  personal  force  and  wisdom  of  Mr.  Adams 
prevented  a  fatal  schism.  Along  with  this  conserving  work  he  yet  had  a 
rare  breadth  of  spiritual  and  practical  earnestness.  He  was  active  in  helping 
build  a  rector's  house  at  Yale,  and  also  encouraging  a  Congregational  move- 
ment at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  lending  a  hand  wherever  he  could  promote 
a  good  work  or  word.  His  long  and  faithful  ministry  came  to  a  close  with 
his  death  in  1753.  He  had  been  for  many  years  acknowledged  "in  every 
respect  the  most  superior  person"  in  the  Colony  of  Connecticut. 

The  story  of  the  Old  First  in  New  London  from  the  death  of  this  beloved 
pastor  and  citizen  (1753)  to  1835,  takes  the  church  through  the  greatest 
political  and  theological  controversies  of  America,  including  the  French  and 
Indian  war,  the  American  Revolution,  the  founding  of  the  United  States  of 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  293 

America,  the  War  of  1812,  the  unexpectedly  firmer  grasp  of  slavery  on  the 
expanding  Republic,  the  consummation  of  the  freedom  of  the  Church  from 
the  State,  and  the  great  schism  among  the  churches  of  New  England  resulting 
in  the  "Unitarian"  defection,  as  well  as  the  beginning  of  the  splendid  record 
of  the  "orthodox"  churches  in  the  establishment  of  the  Home  and  Foreign 
Missionary  enterprises,  the  founding  of  schools  and  colleges  and  theological 
seminaries,  and  the  upspringing  of  notable  spiritual  awakenings  that  far  more 
than  made  up  for  all  the  losses. 

The  pastorate  of  Rev.  Mather  Byles,  Jr.,  in  the  First  Church  in  New 
London  (1757-68),  was  chiefly  marked  by  the  fact  that  he  was  the  first  pastor 
in  the  county  to  be  inducted  into  his  office  in  the  modern  Congregational  way. 
A  brilliant  man,  he  lacked  the  judicial  temper  of  his  predecessor  and  soon 
had  awakened  the  animosity  of  the  Rogerenes,  who  broke  out  in  vigorous 
rebellion  against  his  drastic  methods  of  law  enforcements.  But  the  real 
cause  of  the  brevity  of  his  ministry  in  New  London  was  a  strong  leaning 
to  Episcopacy,  which  at  last  led  him  to  resign  and  seek  Episcopal  ordination. 

The  still  shorter  pastorate  of  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge  (1769-76),  a 
grandson  of  the  first  pastor  of  the  Groton  church,  was  marked  by  his  stren- 
uous opposition  to  the  Half-Way  Covenant  and  his  exaltation  of  the  principle 
of  church  membership  based  on  genuine  conversion.  A  revolutionary  spirit 
was  in  the  air,  and  a  spiritual  decline  manifest  throughout  the  country.  All 
denominations  lost  ground  in  New  London  as  well  as  everywhere.  Young 
Woodbridge  heroically  set  himself  against  all  the  obstacles.  But  the  death 
of  his  wife  and  his  own  physical  frailty  were  too  much  for  him,  and  he  died 
September  6,  1776. 

A  long  interval  occurred  before  a  successor  was  found  (1776-87),  during 
which  the  building  of  a  new  meeting  house  was  gotten  under  way  (1785)  to 
be  finished  and  dedicated  under  the  ministry  of  Rev.  Henry  Channing  (1787- 
1806).  New  London  by  the  first  United  States  census  (1791)  had  2,465 
inhabitants,  of  whom  138  were  blacks  and  of  these  95  were  slaves.  This 
pastorate  was  notable  for  its  relapse  to  the  extreme  into  the  Half-Way 
Covenant  heresy  on  the  part  of  minister  and  people.  Church  membership 
involved  simply  a  record  of  good  moral  character.  The  number  of  members 
at  the  beginning  was  down  to  twelve  males  and  forty-seven  females.  Mr. 
Channing  received  in  all  two  hundred  and  forty-five  persons  and  baptized 
five  hundred  and  seventy-five,  going  thus  the  limit  of  comprehensiveness. 
On  another  page  may  be  found  the  form  of  admission  to  membership  used, 
which  was  accounted  to  be  "Unitarian"  in  principle  by  his  orthodox  brethren 
all  over  the  county.  At  the  same  time  considerable  care  was  taken  as  to 
cases  calling  for  discipline  of  conduct  not  befitting  a  Christian.  In  1798 
the  church  entered  heartily  into  the  formation  of  the  Missionary  Society  of 
Connecticut.  The  Unitarian  tendencies  of  Mr.  Channing  led  to  considerable 
feeling  in  the  church,  leading  to  hesitancy  of  financial  support  and  finally  to 
his  resignation  in  1806.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  dismissing  council 
voted  "they  unanimously  and  affectionately  concur  in  recommendin.p;-  him  ?s 
a  minister  in  regular  standing  in  the  church  of  Christ." 


294  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Turning  to  the  north  of  the  county,  we  find  the  long  pastorate  of  Rev. 
Benjamin  Lord  at  Norwich  Town  coming  to  its  close  in  17S4.  For  six  years 
he  had  been  assisted  by  Rev.  Joseph  Strong,  who  now  entered  upon  another 
half-century  of  service.  This  was  a  most  critical  era  of  reconstruction,  in 
which  the  Norwich  church  rendered  signal  assistance  to  all  the  pastorless 
churches  in  that  whole  region.  Mr.  Strong  was  a  man  of  a  most  genial 
temperament  and  held  firmly  to  the  new  orthodoxy  in  the  reaction  from  the 
Unitarian  movement.  The  church  entered  into  all  the  strong  forward  move- 
ments of  this  new  evangelical  Congregationalism,  especially  into  its  missionary 
zeal.  From  1829  until  his  death  in  1834,  Mr.  Strong  had  Rev.  Mr.  Everest 
as  colleague.  Mr.  Everest  resigned  in  1836,  and  the  church  called  Rev. 
Hiram  P.  Arms,  who  was  installed  in  1839. 

The  Franklin  church  kept  its  strong  leadership  under  the  pastorates  of 
Rev.  John  Ellis  and  Rev.  Samuel  Nott,  which  stretched  over  a  century, 
beginning  in  1753.  During  that  time  the  Franklin  church  sent  forth  men 
and  women  of  national  and  international  reputation.  Indeed,  few  regions  in 
New  England  during  that  period  were  so  fruitful  in  character  and  human 
achievement  as  the  northern  townships  of  New  London  county.  During  the 
storm  and  stress  of  the  Revolutionary  days — as  someone  has  expressed  it — 
"the  Land  Office  in  Lebanon  was  for  the  nonce  the  capital  of  the  United 
Colonies."  The  Bozrah  church  was  established  in  1739,  the  Hanover  church 
in  1766,  Jewett  City  (Griswold  2nd)   in  1825,  and  Mohegan  church  in  1832. 

The  pastorate  of  Rev.  Abel  McEwen,  D.D.,  at  the  First  Church  in  New 
London  (1806-1854),  brought  that  venerable  organization  into  the  use  of  its 
present  imposing  edifice  and  into  the  modern  life  of  the  denomination. 
Beginning  with  a  reaction  from  the  latitudinarianism  of  his  predecessor,  the 
ministry  of  Dr.  McEwen  struck  a  strong,  virile  note  at  a  time  when  religion 
in  New  London  count}'  was  perhaps  at  its  lowest  ebb  and  a  majority  of  the 
churches  pastorless,  he  being  at  the  beginning  the  only  settled  pastor,  as  he 
used  to  sa'-,  "in  a  territory  fifty  miles  long  and  twelve  miles  broad."  He 
instituted  the  weekly  prayer-meeting.  A  "Sessions  House"  was  built  on  the 
site  of  the  present  Parish  House  on  Union  street  (1819)  to  accommodatt  all 
the  social  activities  of  the  church,  especially  the  newly  established  Sunda>" 
school.  The  church,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  McEwen,  threw  itself  into 
the  Home  Mission  work  in  the  county.  In  1S15  the  Consociation  of  New 
London  County  was  organized,  this  being  the  last  county  in  the  State  to 
do  so,  "two  uncompromising  conservators  of  independency"  having  died. 
The  year  following  (1816),  the  Domestic  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut 
was  formed  under  the  lead  of  Dr.  McEwen  and  Rev.  Mr.  Hart,  of  the 
Griswold  church.  Pastors  rapidly  began  to  be  called  to  the  churches.  The 
world-call  for  missions  was  not  unheeded,  and  in  1819  a  member  of  this 
church,  Harriet  Lathrop,  married  Rev.  Mr.  Winslow,  and  they  sailed  for 
Ceylon  as  foreign  missionaries.  In  1821  the  ladies  of  the  church  formed  the 
Foreign  Missionary  Society.  Mr.  Asa  Otis  became  a  member  of  the  church 
in  1834,  and  eventually  left  to  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  over  a  million  dollars. 

The  spiritual  quickenings  that  came  with  these  varied  enterprises  showed 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  295 

themselves  in  large  and  stable  accessions  to  the  church.  Several  notable 
revivals  stirred  the  waters.  At  Icnr^th  it  became  manifest  that  the  "Old 
First"  could  not  handle  the  prowincr  responsibilities.  The  story  of  the  found- 
ing of  the  Second  Congregational  Church  in  New  London  is  most  refreshing. 
The  members  of  the  First  Church  practically  built  the  new  edifice,  and 
started  oiT  this  fourth  daughter  in  a  strong  way.  During  necessary  repairs 
on  the  old  church,  the  daughter  welcomed  the  mother  church  to  its  services 
for  several  months.  Whereupon,  leaving  the  new  organization  to  carry  on 
its  work  unfettered.  Dr.  McEwen  started  again  to  put  his  own  church  in 
working  order  under  the  new  conditions.  The  empty  seats  were  soon  filled 
and  both  churches  went  on  rejoicing.  The  pastorate  closed  with  the  building 
of  the  modern  church  edifice,  which  remains  as  peculiarly  the  monument  to 
this  remarkable  spiritual  leader.  It  expresses  the  solidity  of  his  character, 
possibly  suggesting,  too,  a  certain  reserve  and  stiffness  in  a  rather  puritanical 
aspect  of  his  earnest  career.  His  resignation  from  the  pastorate  came  in  1854, 
with  graciousness  after  nearly  fifty  years  of  most  active  and  fruitful  ministry. 
He  remained  for  six  years  an  honored  worker  in  the  church  and  county,  when 
(i860)  he  was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  honored  and  lamented  by  the  whole 
community. 

The  water  privileges  of  the  upper  end  of  the  Thames  estuary  gradually 
brought  Norwich  into  trading  connection  with  the  whole  world.  About  the 
Landing  Place  there  grew  up  a  community  called  Chelsea,  which  finall)- 
required  church  privileges  of  its  own.  In  1751  such  an  organization  was 
effected.  The  growth  was  slow,  and  it  was  not  until  1761  that  a  regular 
minister  was  settled  over  the  new  parish,  Rev.  Nathaniel  Whittaker.  His 
pastorate  was  interrupted  by  a  long  absence  in  England  as  an  agent  seeking 
funds  for  Moor's  Indian  Charity  School  of  Lebanon,  Connecticut,  and  later 
Hanover,  New  Hampshire.  Rev.  Ephraim  Judson  succeeded  to  the  pastorate 
in  1771.  He  too  had  an  interrupted  ministry,  being  called  off  as  chaplain 
during  the  Revolutionary  War  and  being  much  of  the  time  in  poor  health. 
This  intermittent  service  came  to  an  end  in  1778,  and  for  eight  years  there 
was  no  successor. 

In  1786  came  the  division  of  the  huge  township  of  Norwich,  taking  away 
all  the  upper  and  eastern  portions  of  the  "nine-mile"  tract.  The  year  follow- 
ing, Rev.  Walter  King  was  installed  over  the  Second  Church,  as  the  Chelsea 
organization  began  to  be  known.  The  meeting  house  was  burned  in  1793, 
and  Mr.  King's  congregation  enjoyed  for  some  months  the  hospitality  of  the 
neighboring  Episcopal  church  during  the  rebuilding.  Mr.  King  was  a  man 
of  deep  earnestness.  In  181 1  a  controversy  over  the  academic  question  of 
marrying  a  dead  wife's  sister  led  to  the  dissolution  of  the  pastorate. 

A  brief  ministry  of  Rev.  Asahel  Hooker  was  followed  by  that  of  Rev. 
Alfred  Mitchell  in  1814,  who  started  the  series  of  powerful  spiritual  leaders, 
making  the  Second  Church  of  Norwich  a  worthy  competitor  in  good  works 
with  the  First  Church  in  New  London.  It  grew  rapidly  in  numbers,  wealth 
and  standing  in  the  county.  Its  readiness  to  be  the  leader  in  a  new  era  of 
Congregationalism  was  indicated  in  every  turn.  Mr.  Mitchell  took  an  active 
part  in  all  constructive  missionary  politics.    The  Second  Church  was  notable 


296  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

especially  in  standing  back  of  the  Sunday  school  work  begun  in  Norwich  in 
1815.    The  death  of  the  pastor  in  1831  was  a  severe  blow  to  the  church. 

The  short  pastorate  of  Rev.  James  T.  Dickinson  prepared  him  for  the 
Foreign  Mission  field  in  1834.  The  Rev.  Alvan  Pond  succeeded  in  a  ministry 
of  twenty-nine  years  (1835-65),  a  period  of  steady  growth  for  the  church  and 
community.  Soon  it  appeared  that  one  church  could  not  care  for  the  religious 
life  crowding  in,  and  in  1842  what  was  called  the  Fifth  Society  was  formed 
by  a  colony  of  ninety-eight  persons  going  out,  who  organized  what  was 
known  for  over  eighty  years  as  the  Broadway  Congregational  Church,  now 
again,  with  the  mother  church,  making  the  United  Church.  That  the  new 
venture  did  not  seriously  deplete  the  strength  of  the  mother  church  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  the  fire  of  1844  destroying  its  edifice  did  not  keep  its  strong 
constituency  from  building  of  granite  on  its  present  site  what  was  at  the 
time  the  finest  church  structure  in  the  county.  With  its  membership  ever 
growing  in  influence,  culture  and  spiritual  and  evangelical  progressiveness, 
the  Second  Church  of  Norwich  became  a  power  in  Eastern  Connecticut. 
Then  followed  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Malcolm  McG.  Dana,  D.D.  (1864-74), 
which  carried  on  the  strong  work  of  the  church.  The  feeling  that  its  help- 
fulness to  the  community  would  be  increased  by  removal  to  the  suburban 
district  near  the  Academy  led  to  marked  differences  of  opinion  with  the 
majority  of  his  parishioners,  and  in  1874  Dr.  Dana  resigned  and,  with  one 
hundred  and  five  of  his  old  members,  formed  the  Park  Congregational  Church. 
Rev.  William  S.  Palmer,  D.D.,  came  to  the  Second  Church  in  the  autumn  of 
that  year  (1874)  and  began  a  fruitful  ministry  of  fifteen  years.  The  difficulties 
at  the  opening  of  the  pastorate  were  gradually  overcome.  Dr.  Palmer  began 
with  two  hundred  and  forty  members  and  closed  with  three  hundred  and  fifty- 
one.  During  his  ministry  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society  was  organized,  and 
special  work  was  done  for  the  Chinese.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Palmer  did  a  strong 
and  wide  work,  and  their  influence  was  felt  in  the  State  and  the  denomination 
at  large.  The  pulpit  was  supplied  for  three  years  by  Rev.  Leonard  Woolsey 
Bacon,  D.D.,  when  Rev.  Cornelius  W.  Morrow  was  installed. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  year  1842  was  notable  in  Norwich  for  the  establish- 
ment of  what  became  the  Broadway  Congregational  Church.  No  new  church 
enterprise  in  the  county  ever  started  oiif  with  better  opportunities.  The 
short  pastorate  of  Rev.  Willard  Child  (1842-45)  was  succeeded  by  the  epoch- 
making  ministry  of  Rev.  John  P.  Gulliver,  D.  D.  (1846-65).  With  a  genius 
peculiar  to  himself,  he  took  hold  of  his  problem  in  harmony  with  his  brethren 
in  the  ministry  and  worked  it  out  from  the  community  standpoint.  The 
story  of  his  local  work  for  education  is  told  at  length  elsewhere  and  may  not 
be  repeated  here.  A  disastrous  fire  in  1854  led  to  the  building  of  "Broadway" 
Church,  now  the  home  of  the  United  Church.  Under  his  lead  the  church 
stepped  out  into  the  larger  life  of  the  denomination  and  has  ever  since  played 
a  strong  part  in  its  life  at  home  and  abroad. 

Dr.  Gulliver's  successor  was  Rev.  Daniel  Merriman  (1868-75),  who 
carried  on  the  tradition  of  strength  and  breadth,  as  also  did  his  successors, 
Rev.  L.  T.  Chamberlain  (1877-83)  and  Rev.  Nelson  Millard,  D.D.  (1884-87). 
In  j888  began  the  powerful  pastorate  of  Rev.  Lwellyn  Pratt,  D.D.,  who  had 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  297 

already  in  a  variety  of  spheres  accomplished  a  life  work.  He  gathered  up 
the  lines  of  service  developed  b}-  his  predecessors  and  added  yet  more  of  his 
own,  increasing  in  power  for  nearly  a  score  of  years.  In  1906  he  laid  down 
the  burden  of  labors  which  were  too  much  for  his  weakening  physique,  but 
remained  a  loved  adviser  until  his  death  in  1913. 

Side  by  side  with  the  development  of  these  two  urban  churches,  the  old 
First  at  Norwichtown  had  gone  on  its  way  under  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  H.  P. 
Arms,  who  lived  to  preach  an  emeritus  sermon  on  the  fortieth  anniversary 
of  his  ministry  in  1876.  Since  that  date  the  Old  First  at  Norwichtown  has 
gone  on  her  steady  way,  holding  a  strong  position  in  the  Association. 

The  Park  Church  started  off  on  her  vigorous  life,  as  we  have  seen,  under 
the  pastorate  of  Dr.  Dana  in  1874.  Her  beautiful  house  of  worship,  in  a 
superb  location,  adjoining  the  group  of  the  Academy  buildings,  with  a  pow- 
erful ministry  under  Dr.  Dana  (1874-78),  Rev.  Leonard  Woolsey  Bacon,  D.D., 
and  Rev.  Samuel  H.  Howe,  D.D.,  have  made  the  Park  Church  a  bright  light 
in  the  Association  and  State  and  throughout  the  denomination. 

The  Greenville  Church  in  Norwich  (Third  Congregational)  had  been 
established  (1833)  in  a  suburb  where  the  water  privileges  began  to  attract 
manufacturing  interests.  Its  pastorates  were  short  for  over  a  half  century 
of  its  life,  but  it  is  closing  the  century  with  the  long  and  faithful  ministry  of 
Rev.  Charles  H.  Ricketts.  In  1867,  as  the  manufacturing  interests  moved 
further  up  the  stream,  the  Taftville  Church  was  added  to  the  Norwich  group, 
doing  its  helpful  service  to  a  fine  constituency  of  people  mostly  connected 
with  the  mills  established  there.  The  Second  Congregational  Church  of 
Stonington  was  organized  in  1833  and  the  Mystic  church  in  1852,  and  with 
the  Groton  church  have  given  the  shore  section  of  the  county  a  steady  and 
vigorous  Congregational  ministry. 

At  the  Old  First  at  New  London  the  pastorate  of  Dr.  McEwen  was 
succeeded  by  that  of  Rev.  Thomas  P.  Field,  D.D.,  after  an  associate  pastorate 
from  1856  to  i860,  closing  in  1876.  Dr.  Field  brought  to  New  London  from 
his  professorship  of  literature  at  Amherst  College,  culture  and  learning,  and 
a  spiritual  leadership,  as  well  as  a  wide  reputation  throughout  religious  and 
educational  circles.  A  revival  in  1858  led  on  to  a  steady  growth  throughout 
his  strong  ministry.  Rev.  Edward  Woolsey  Bacon  (1877-87)  and  Rev.  S. 
Leroy  Blake,  D.  D.  (1887-1902),  succeeded,  each  with  a  fruitful  service.  Dr. 
Blake  wrote  in  two  volumes  the  story  of  the  church  he  served. 

Rev.  J.  Romeyn  Danforth,  the  present  pastor  (1922),  came  in  1903  and 
has  carried  on  with  distinction  the  high-grade  service  of  the  church.  He  has 
represented  the  denomination  in  her  national  councils  for  many  years,  and 
proved  a  wise  councillor  in  the  American  Missionary  Association.  The  war 
opened  the  heart  of  this  church,  and  it  rendered  valuable  service,  social  and 
religious,  to  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  who  accepted  to  an  unusual  degree  its 
hospitalities.  Its  Young  People's  Society  was  especially  active  in  this  work 
and  has  since  been  carrying  on  strongly.  The  Old  First  Church  was  incor- 
porated in  1919  in  harmony  with  the  modern  plans  of  best  church  organiza- 
tion, and  the  venerable  ecclesiastical  society  voluntarily  closed  its  long  and 
honorable  career.    It  added  deaconesses  to  its  efficient  organization.    At  the 


298  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

time  of  epidemics  its  parish  house  has  been  used  as  an  emergency  hospital. 
Mr.  Danforth  entered  widely  into  the  religious  and  philanthropic  life  of  the 
community.  The  Smith  Memorial  Home,  the  Mohegan  fund,  the  Tinker 
Bread  fund,  the  Rotary-  Club,  the  Masonic  and  Odd  Fellows  orders,  claim  him. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Second  Congregational  Church  started  off  in  1835 
with  the  warmest  favor  of  the  Old  First,  and  has  grown  into  the  stature  of 
a  powerful  leader  among  the  churches  of  the  denomination  in  the  State  and 
coimtry.  It  worshipped  in  its  original  building  until  its  destruction  by  fire 
in  1S68,  just  after  a  thorough  repair.  At  that  time  the  present  main  building 
was  erected,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  State,  especially  after  the  addition  in 
recent  years  of  the  Church  House,  fully  equipped  for  all  lines  of  church 
activity.  The  early  pastorates  were  comparatively  short,  with  intervening 
supplies,  and  the  names  of  Hurlbut,  Huntington,  MacDonald,  Boies  and 
Edwards  (1845-57)  make  up  the  rapid  succession.  During  the  pastorate  of 
Rev.  G.  B.  Wilcox  (1859-69)  two  hundred  and  seven  persons  were  received 
into  the  membership,  and  the  Bradley  Street  Mission  (since  the  Learned 
Mission)  was  founded  (1859).  Many  still  living  will  recall  the  edifying 
ministry  of  Rev.  Oliver  Ellsworth  Daggett  (1871-77),  during  which  he 
received  156  new  members.  Rev.  John  Phelps  Taylor,  D.D.  (1878-83), 
brought  a  learned  and  distinguished  equipment  to  the  pulpit  of  the  Second 
Church.  He  was  followed  by  Rev.  James  Gibson  Johnson.  D.D.  (1885-91), 
who  will  be  remembered  by  a  still  larger  group  for  his  genial  and  effective 
ministry.  But  it  was  not  until  the  eighth  pastor  of  the  Second  Church  that 
it  was  able  to  hold  a  strong  man  for  a  full  quarter  of  a  century,  the  Rev. 
James  Wilson  Bixler,  D.D.,  who  rounded  up  his  uplifting  ministry  from  1891 
to  IQ16  with  a  power  rarely  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  Connecticut.  The 
membership  of  the  church  grew  from  413  to  622.  L'nder  the  ministry  of  Dr. 
Bixler  the  church  was  incorporated  and  the  ecclesiastical  society  eliminated, 
a  men's  club  established,  the  Whiton  chimes  mounted  in  the  belfry,  the 
Harris  manse  erected  and  endowed,  as  well  as  the  Harris  organ  installed  and 
the  Church  House  built,  completing  the  superb  working  plant  of  church. 
There  were  several  revivals  during  this  pastorate,  notably  the  one  under  the 
leadership  of  Rev.  J.  Wilbur  Chapman,  D.D.,  in  1894.  The  influence  of  Dr. 
Bixler  pervaded  the  community,  and  no  important  organization  in  the  ci<-y 
failed  to  receive  the  strong  impress  of  his  congenial  personality.  He  was 
especially  a  leader  in  the  establishment  of  the  Connecticut  College  for  Women 
on  its  noble  site  in  New  London.  He  retired  from  his  long  pastorate  to  take 
an  honorable  position  in  Atlanta  Theological  Seminary.  The  ministry  of 
Rev.  J.  Beveredge  Lee,  D.  D.,  began  in  191 7  with  every  promise  of  a  full 
utilization  of  all  the  successes  of  the  eight  preceding  pastorates. 

The  Congregational  churches  of  New  London  county  came  up  to  the 
end  of  1920  with  a  total  membership  of  5.332  in  the  thirty-two  churches  of 
that  order  within  the  area  of  the  county,  twenty-eight  of  which  are  connected 
with  the  New  London  Association  of  Congregational  Churches  and  Ministers. 
This  Association  is  the  direct  descendant  of  the  Colonial  Association,  a  clear 
record  of  which  we  have  as  early  as  1750.  It  took  its  present  form  during 
the  readjustments  in  the  denomination  early  in  this  century.    The  constitution 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  299 

undt-r  which  it  is  working  was  adopted  May  10,  1921,  and  harmonizes  with 
the  frcneral  modern  pattern  throughout  the  denomination.  It  is  now  a  strong, 
efficient  body,  continuously  existent  through  its  executive  committee  and 
carrying  on  its  united  work  through  this  and  the  standing  committees,  with 
an  annual  meeting  in  May  and  a  semi-annual  meeting  in  the  autumn.  The 
traditional  autonomy  of  the  individual  church  has  been  sacredly  preserved. 
Never  was  this  scion  of  its  New  England  ancestry  so  strong  in  numbers, 
organization,  material  equipment,  and  social  and  religious  powers.  The  year 
1921  brought  into  its  membership  more  new  members  than  any  year  in  a 
generation. 

At  this  writing  (1922)  the  pulpits  are  filled  with  strong,  united  men,  all 
of  whom  have  at  heart  the  whole  work  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  county, 
in  most  cordial  relations  with  all  the  sister  denominations. 

IV. 

THE  B.^PTIST  CHURCHES  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Second  in  arrival  on  the  field  to  begin  their  heroic  struggle  for  the 
upbuilding  of  religion  in  New  London  county,  came  the  Baptists  from  Rhode 
Island.  The  border  line  between  the  two  colonies  was  greatly  confused  at 
the  first,  but  got  straightened  out  when  Governor  John  Winthrop,  Jr., 
brought  back  from  England  his  new  charter  for  the  Connecticut  Colony 
(1662),  and  Massachusetts  graciously  gave  over  her  claims  in  these  regions, 
the  Pawcatuck  river  becoming  the  boundary.  The  contest  for  entire  religious 
liberty  soon  crossed  this  Rubicon  and  asserted  itself  in  the  State-Church 
territory  of  Connecticut.  At  first  in  individual  homes  and  then  in  groups 
the  work  began.  The  lowering  of  the  original  Puritan  standards  and  the 
incoming  of  the  "Half-way  Covenant"  into  the  State-Church  parishes  led 
to  a  real  need  for  the  strong  assertion  of  individual  conversion,  and  with 
this  came  the  necessitv  for  individual  initiative  along  the  whole  line  of 
religious  as  well  as  civil  development.  These  groups  of  colonial  Christians 
contended  for  a  simple  form  of  faith  and  practice  which  they  attempted  to 
draw  directly  from  the  New  Testanient  records.  Each  organization  formed 
a  complete  and  autonomous  democracy,  and  was  linked  by  a  common  belief 
to  all  similar  bodies,  soon  forming  into  free  associations  of  such.  A  bap- 
tism (immersion)  of  faith  was  required  for  church-membership  and,  with 
more  or  less  insistence,  the  communion  was  administered  only  to  such 
believers.  The  result  in  church  life  brought  out  a  remarkable  staying  quality. 
Today  (1922)  the  Baptists  have  the  largest  number  of  churches  and  of 
communicants  of  any  denomination  in  the  county,  and  a  very  conscientious 
and  vital  hold  upon  the  whole  religious  and  ethical  life  hereabouts. 

The  beginnings  were  naturally  east  of  the  Thames  river.  On  the  very 
year  that  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Colony  set  off  Groton  township  from 
New  London  (1705),  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Groton  was  organized  at 
Old  Mystic,  the  venerable  "Mother"  of  all  that  followed.  The  story  of  the 
Wightmans — father,  son  and  grandson — in  establishing  the  principles  for 
which  the  denomination  has  ever  stood  in  this  county,  is  a  truly  remarkable 


300 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


and  heroic  one.  At  the  first,  individuals  and  families  west  of  the  Thames, 
S}-mpathizing  with  this  movement,  connected  themselves  with  this  first 
church.  But  in  1710  the  First  Baptist  Church,  in  what  was  later  called 
Waterford  (1801),  was  organized  as  the  second  Baptist  church  in  the  Colony. 
Stephen  Gorton  was  ordained  its  pastor  in  1726,  and  for  a  generation  went 
widely  over  the  western  part  of  the  county  preaching  his  faith  and  prac- 
ticing its  rites.  Some  trouble  interrupted  his  labors,  arising  out  of  personal 
matters  and  doubtless  partly  out  of  disturbances  connected  with  "Separatist" 
movements  connected  with  the  revival  enthusiasm  of  the  "Great  Awaken- 
ing". A  majority  of  his  church  stood  by  him  and  seem  to  have  been  dis- 
fellowshipped  with  him  by  the  other  Baptist  churches  in  the  vicinity.  At 
any  rate,  the  minority  went  off  and  continued  the  First  Church  under  the 
leadership  of  Elder  Peckham. 

We  have  record  of  special  contentions  throughout  the  whole  of  that 
period  before  the  Revolutionary  War  against  the  State-Church  system,  and 
the  proclamation  of  religious  liberty  by  these  earnest  folk,  who  suffered 
hardship  for  their  faith  at  the  hands  of  the  Puritan  church  leaders.  They 
had  to  share  the  obliquy  of  all  the  Non-conformists  (Rogerenes,  Separatists. 
Adventists,  etc.),  in  disregarding  many  rules  and  laws  and  customs  of  the 
Colony.  This  came  to  a  climax  about  1748,  when  a  lodgment  of  the  ven- 
erable Elder  Peckham  and  his  intrepid  colleague.  Green,  and  many  of  their 
followers  in  New  London  jail  in  the  winter  time,  with  no  fire  or  bedding 
and  with  insufficient  food,  gave  wide  publicity  to  the  matter.  This  local 
persecution  called  forth  deepest  sympathy  and  a  signal  protest  from  the 
ranks  of  even  their  opponents.  The  president  of  Yale  College  issued  at 
once,  on  hearing  of  the  affair,  a  pamphlet  on  "The  Essential  Rights  of 
Protestants,"  in  which  he  gave  a  scorching  rebuke  to  the  intolerance  of  the 
existing  laws  and  set  forth  the  rights  of  conscience  and  the  principles  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  This  had  much  to  do  with  the  overthrow  of  the 
old  and  impossible  system,  and  of  bringing  in  the  new  order  more  in  har- 
mony with  the  American  ideal.  The  larger  freedom  that  ensued  gave  great 
encouragement  to  the  increasing  numbers  of  conscientious  Baptists  in  the 
county. 

In  the  meanwhile,  in  the  north-eastern  part  of  the  township  (Water- 
ford,  later)  the  second  Baptist  church  had  been  established  (1730),  which 
in  later  years  seems  to  have  been  reorganized  by  the  Board  of  the  Con- 
necticut Baptist  State  Convention  and  is  sometimes  called  the  "Quaker 
Hill"  church.  In  1741  came  the  North  Stonington  First,  in  1765  the  North 
Stonington  Second,  in  1767  the  Salem  Baptist  church,  in  1769  the  East 
Lyme  church,  in  1775  the  Stonington  First,  and  in  1780  the  Scott  Hill 
church  in  Colchester.  The  Stonington  church  has  had  a  long  and  most 
honorable  career,  and  is  a  leading  religious  force  in  the  eastern  section 
of  the  county. 

The  name  of  Nathan  Howard  appears  as  the  second  pastor  of  the  Old 
First  at  Waterford.  His  rare  personality  greatly  endeared  him  to  the  peo- 
ple. His  long  illness  and  sudden  death  in  1777  brought  a  grievous  blow 
to  the  cause  he  represented.     Baptist  pastors  for  the  most  part   in   those 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  301 

days  earned  their  own  livelihood  in  various  occupations,  especially  in  farm- 
ing. Elder  Howard  was  an  expert  fisherman  as  well  as  a  fisher  of  souls. 
He  discovered  in  the  Sound  a  prolific  fishing  ground,  ever  since  a  favorite 
resort.     It  appears  on  the  mariners'  charts  as  "Howard's  Ledge". 

In  1775  there  began  in  the  First  Church  at  Waterford  that  remarkable 
succession  of  the  Darrows.  Elder  Zadok  Darrow  had  grown  up  in  the 
church,  and  in  so  high  a  regard  was  he  held  that  the  mantle  of  the  beloved 
Howard  fell  on  him.  In  the  midst  of  a  general  decline  of  religion  in  the 
county,  we  find  this  ardent  apostle  of  a  vital  faith  covering  in  his  activities 
wide  sections,  being  wellnigh  omnipresent,  like  a  second  Athanasius.  The 
seed  thus  scattered  was  to  bear  abundant  fruitage.  In  his  day  (1789)  was 
formed  the  "Groton  Conference"  of  Baptist  churches  as  well  as  the  "Ston- 
ington  Conference".  In  1817  came  the  New  London  Baptist  Association, 
embracing  the  churches  of  that  order  west  of  the  Thames.  In  that  same 
year  the  Groton  and  Stonington  Conferences  were  merged  into  the  "Stoning- 
ton  Union  Association". 

Elder  Zadok  Darrow  passed  away  in  1827,  in  the  99th  year  of  his  age 
He  was  succeeded  by  his  grandson.  Francis  Darrow,  who  had  been  con- 
verted in  the  great  revival  of  1794,  and  who  had  been  for  a  long  time  an 
assistant  to  the  older  man.  The  strong  ministrj-  of  the  younger  Darrow 
of  more  than  forty  years  averaged  seventeen  immersions  a  year,  totaling 
about  seven  hundred  converts.  A  large  number  of  these  became  ministers 
of  the  Gospel. 

The  widespread  fruitage  of  the  labors  of  the  Wightmans  and  Darrows 
is  seen  in  the  rapid  organization  of  Baptist  churches  all  over  New  London 
County,  beginning  with  the  First  Church  at  Norwich  in  1800.  Within 
the  half  century  following,  twenty-five  churches  were  founded  in  territory 
now  included  in  the  county,  not  to  speak  of  many  more  outside.  This  makes 
up  more  than  half  the  number  and  much  more  than  half  the  strength  of 
the  entire  Baptists  in  the  county. 

In  1804  the  Baptists  moved  into  New  London  proper  and  established 
the  First  Baptist  Church,  thus  making  straight  the  way  for  its  long  and 
growingly  powerful  service  at  the  heart  of  things.  Mention  must  be  made 
here  of  the  particular  helpfulness  of  this  church  in  the  Great  War.  At 
considerable  personal  sacrifice  its  building  was  enlarged  and  fully  equipped 
and  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  at  this  important  cen- 
tre of  war  activity.  Its  pastor,  Rev.  Charles  R.  McNally,  donned  the  uni- 
form and  served  as  Army  and  Navy  Pastor  in  New  London  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  and  the  Connecticut  Baptist 
Convention.  The  church  has  since  then  been  active  through  its  pastor, 
Rev.  Chester  H.  Howe,  and  its  members  in  the  Federation  of  Churches  in 
New  London  and  vicinity,  of  which  federation  Mr.  Howe  was  the  first 
president. 

Lebanon  (1805),  North  Lyme  (iSio),  Moodus  (1810),  Preston  City 
(1815),  Chesterfield  (1824),  North  Stonington  Third  (1828),  Packerville 
(1828),  Colchester  Borough  (1830),  Bozrah  (1831),  Voluntown  (1832),  and 
Jewett   City    (1840),  followed   in   rapid  succession.      Special   mention   may 


302  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

properly  be  made  here  of  the  long  and  successful  pastorate  at  Colchester 
of  Rev.  B.  D.  Remington. 

That  year  of  1840  was  signalized  by  the  organization  of  the  Norwich 
Central  Baptist  Church,  which  has  grown  steadily  and  become  a  power 
not  only  for  its  own  denomination,  but  for  our  common  Christianity  in  the 
county.  Of  recent  years  the  names  of  Herr,  Wright,  Slocum  and  Purkiss 
have  made  the  pastorate  of  that  church  notable  in  the  State. 

In  that  same  year  (1840)  the  Montauk  Baptist  Church  of  New  Lon- 
don was  founded,  and  which  now  worships  in  its  attractive  new  church  in 
the  southern  section  of  the  city.  The  zeal  and  success  of  the  denomination 
in  New  London  is  evidenced  in  the  founding  of  the  Huntington  Street 
Baptist  Church  in  1849,  which  is  rejoicing  at  this  writing  in  the  long 
and  fruitful  ministry  of  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Elder  (1899 — ).  In  close  con- 
nection with  the  origin  of  this  enterprise  is  found  the  name  and  fame  of 
Elder  Jabez  Swan,  whose  remarkable  personality  became  a  constituent  part 
of  New  London  tradition.  His  influence  was  widely  felt  throughout  the 
county,  as  he  exercised  his  evangelistic  gifts,  sooner  or  later,  in  almost 
every  Baptist  community.  His  piquant  remarks  have  come  down  like  prov- 
erbs in  the  whole  region  round  about,  linking  his  personality  up  to  the 
Wightmans  and  Darrows  as  outstanding  religious  influences  in  the  county. 

In  1842  came  the  establishment  of  the  Montville  Union  Baptist  and 
Lake's  Pond,  while  Niantic  (1843),  Ledyard  (1843),  Groton  Heights  (1843). 
and  Noank  (1843),  came  on  in  rapid  succession,  the  most  of  them  being  the 
results  of  special  revival  interests.  The  Noank  and  Groton  Heights  churches 
stand  strongly  up  in  the  list  of  vigorous  workers.  The  long  pastorate  of 
Rev.  George  R.  Atha  at  the  Groton  Heights  church  calls  for  special  comment. 

The  Old  Lyme  Church  was  established  in  1846,  Stonington  Third  in 
1846,  Poquonnock  Bridge  in  1856,  and  Mystic  Union  in  1864.  The  latter 
is  a  strong  church  and  with  promising  signs  of  enlarged  work.  The  Grace 
Memorial  (1871)  at  Norwich,  Fitchville  (1887),  Laurel  Glen  (1894),  and 
Mt.  Calvarj'  (1903),  in  Norwich,  also  are  the  more  recent  organizations,  as 
well  as  the  Shiloh  (Colored)  Baptist  Church   (1894)   in  New  London. 

A  word  should  be  said  at  this  point  as  to  the  Stonington  Union  Sabbath 
School  Convention,  which  was  founded  in  1858  and  is  still  a  vigorous  expo- 
nent of  the  religious  life  of  the  Baptist  churches  east  of  the  Thames  river 
in  New  London  county.  The  last  few  years  have  seen  strong  and  united 
work  within  the  Stonington  Union  Association  under  the  lead  of  a  special 
missionary  who  works  with  the  pastorless  churches  in  that  section. 

A  roster  of  the  Baptist  pastors  at  this  writing  (1922)  in  New  London 
county  shows  the  names  of  thirty  pastors  and  missionaries  at  work  in  these 
forty-three  churches.  It  is  probable  that  never  in  the  history  of  the  county 
has  there  been  a  more  effective  bodv  of  Baptist  ministers  serving  these 
organizations.  The  membership  of  the  Baptist  churches  of  New  London 
county  totals  6,173,  of  whom  4.856  are  put  down  in  the  last  report  as  "resi- 
dent members."  There  seems  to  be  a  tendency  to  co-operate  with  other 
denominations  in  the  county  wherever  practicable.  Special  efforts  are  made 
to  this  end  in  the  rural  districts.  Strong  men  are  at  the  helm,  and  the 
future  looks  bright  for  the  co-operative  labors  for  the  religious  well-being 
of  the  county  as  far  as  this  earnest  fellowship  and  bring  it  about. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW   LONDON  COUNTY  303 

V. 

THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  NEW  LONDON 

Rt.  Reverend  Chauncey  Bunce  Brewster,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Connecticut. 
Rt.  Reverend  E.  Champion  Acheson,  D.D.,  Suffragan  Bishop  of  Con- 
necticut. 

Rev.  J.  Eldred  Brown,  Archdeacon  of  the  New  London  Archdeanry. 

Place  Church  or  Mission  Communicants 

Black  Hall  (Old  Lyme) St.  Ann's  Mission 52 

Rev.  Johnson,  Missionary  in  Charge 

Colchester Calvary  Church  19 

Rev.  Theodore  D.  Martin,  Rector 

Groton Bishop  Seabury  Memorial 82 

Rev.  Frederick  W  .Haist,  Rector 

Jewett  City Episcopal  Mission  

Archdeacon  Brown  in  Charge 

My.stic St.  Mark's  Church 173 

Rev.  John  Beauchamp,  Rector 

New  London St.  James's  Church 707 

Rev.  Philip  Markham  Kerredgc,  Rector 
New  London Pequot  Chapel 

'Niantic St.  John's  Chapel 75 

Rev.  Johnson,  Missionary  in  Charge 

Noank Grace  Chapel    22 

Rev.  John  Beauchamp,  Priest  'n  Charge 

Norwich Christ  Church   396 

Rev.  Richard  D.  Graham,  Rector 

Norwich Trinity  Church   277 

Rev.  J.  Eldred  Brown,  Rector 

Norwich St.  Andrew's  Church 2CX3 

Rev.  William  H.  Smith,  Rector 

Poquetanuk St.  James's  Church 115 

Rev.  Thomas  H.  M.  Ockford,  Rector 

South  Lyme St.  Michael's  Church 13 

Rev.  Johnson,  Missionary  in  Charge 

Stonington Calvary   Church    131 

Rev.  Frederick  R.  Sanford,  Rector 
Yantic Grace  Church   121 


2,38^ 
The  reader  has  noted  on  previous  pages  glimpses  of  the  beginnings  of 
Episcopacy  within  the  borders  of  New  London  county.  It  seems  clear  that 
it  did  not  spring  out  of  the  original  Puritan  settlers,  but  grew  up  gradu- 
ally and  predominantly  from  newcomers,  especially  those  interested  in  ship- 
ping and  commerce.  These  at  an  early  date  showed  a  tendency,  both  in 
New  London  and  Norwich,  to  form  social  groups  of  a  less  austere  type 
than  prevailed,  whose  members  craved  for  themselves  and  their  families 
the  liturgical  forms  of  worship  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  else- 
where, and  particularly  in  the  old  country.  But  still  there  are  notable 
instances  where  they  did  not  fail  to  do  their  part  in  honoring  religion  in 


304  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

their  new  domiciles  even  in  its  puritanic  form.  We  find  record  of  the  pay- 
ment by  such  of  the  minister's  rate  and  of  the  rental  of  pews,  as  well  as 
other  indications  of  a  general  goodwill  toward  their  more  or  less  uncon- 
genial spiritual  surroundings.  When  the  time  came  that  they  could  hon- 
orably and  legally  proceed  to  do  so,  they  began  to  organize  themselves  into 
churches  after  their  own  desires.  Descendants  also  of  some  of  the  leading 
founders  of  the  colony  (Winthrops,  Saltonstalls,  Bulkeleys,  etc.)  are  found 
co-operating   in   this   later  development. 

It  is  evident  that  New  England  presented  quite  a  serious  problem  to 
the  Church  of  England.  Boston  and  Plymouth  gave  no  encouragement 
except  among  the  British  officials  and  their  families.  Early  efiforts  to  set 
up  Episcopacy  in  Boston  were  stigmatized  by  the  unfortunate  tyranny  of 
Andros.  But  King's  Chapel  was  opened  in  i68g,  though  under  bitter  oppo- 
sition from  the  Puritan  leaders.  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  was  more  con- 
genial, and  in  1698  Trinity  Church  was  founded  there,  soon  followed  in  1707 
by  the  famous  Narragansett  Church.  But  if  New  England  was  to  be  won 
back  to  the  Church  of  England,  the  Colony  of  Connecticut  must  be  the  key 
to  unlock  the  door. 

The  report  of  Rev.  Dr.  Bray  to  the  authorities  in  England  as  to  his 
investigations  in  New  England  and  elsewhere  led  in  the  very  year  of  the 
founding  of  what  grew  into  Yale  College  (1701)  to  the  establishment  of  the 
Venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.  Men- 
tion has  been  made  of  the  visit  of  the  early  New  England  missioners  (Messrs. 
Keith  and  Talbot)  from  this  Society  to  New  London  in  1702,  and  of  their 
cordial  reception  at  the  hands  of  Governor  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  and  Rev. 
Gurdon  Saltonstall,  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ  there.  Near  to 
the  south-western  edge  of  the  Colony,  at  Stratford,  the  first  Episcopal 
church  was  started,  with  grave  opposition,  almost  leading  to  a  riot  in  1706, 
and  fully  established  in  the  years  following. 

In  the  early  struggles  to  get  onto  its  feet,  the  Collegiate  Institute  of 
Connecticut  (Yale),  originally  situated  within  the  boundaries  of  New  Lon- 
don county  at  Saybrook  and  later  moved  to  New  Haven  (1716),  sought  to 
build  up  a  library.  A  consignment  of  two  hundred  books  was  sent  over 
from  England  for  this  purpose  by  Sir  John  Davie,  a  recent  resident  of 
Groton  (Ct.)  and  was  followed  soon  by  seven  hundred  more  from  an  agent 
of  the  Institute  in  London.  A  few  years  later,  Bishop  Berkeley,  who  was 
seeking  to  establish  in  the  Bermudas  a  college  for  the  education  and  civiliza- 
tion of  the  American  Indians  and  who  was  residing  during  the  time  of  futile 
waiting  in  Rhode  Island,  before  his  return  to  England,  was  induced  to  add 
his  valuable  library  to  the  Yale  collection  (1731).  The  eagerness  with  which 
the  instructors  and  students  of  the  college  absorbed  the  contents  of  the 
books,  embracing  as  they  did  the  finest  assortment  of  contemporary  litera- 
ture in  England,  together  with  a  number  of  controversial,  philosophical 
and  theological  books  vindicating  the  Church  of  England  as  against  the 
Puritans,  proved  to  be  more  effective  in  winning  favor  for  Episcopacy  in 
Connecticut  than  all  the  efforts  of  the  Venerable  Society  for  the  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.     By  1722  the  president  of  the  college 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  305 

and  other  principal  instructors  and  a  group  of  most  influential  Congregational 
clergymen   in   the   vicinity  boldly  proclaimed   their   adherence   to   Episcopal 
views,    to    the    consternation   of   the   trustees   and    the   Congregational   con- 
stituency throughout  the  Colony.     Needless  to  say,  resignations  were  called 
for.  and  the  college  trustees  put  up  bars  against  a  repetition  of  a  like  in- 
vasion.    There  is  no  telling  what  would  have  happened  had  the  young  men 
been    more   patient,   and    thus    more   deeply    inoculated    the    Congregational 
ministry  of  Connecticut  with  churchly  ideals  before  letting  the  break  come. 
One  of  the  students,  profoundly  affected  by  this  episode  at  New  Haven, 
was  Samuel  Seabury,  born  July  8,  1706,  to  John  Seabury,  a  deacon  in  the 
First  Church  of  Christ  in  Groton,  Connecticut.     Young  Seabury  left  Yale 
at  the  rupture,  followed  President  Cutler  to  Boston,  and  finished  his  course 
at  Harvard   (1724).     But  he  still  kept  the  Congregational  connection,  and 
prepared  himself  for  its  ministry.     We   find   him   soon   married   to  Abigail 
Mumford,  of  Groton.  Connecticut,  and  preaching  as  a  licentiate  at  the  North 
Groton  (Ledyard)  Church,  where  his  second  son,  Samuel,  was  baptized.    His 
wife  was  daughter  to  one  of  the  most  devout  and  influential  members  of 
the  Episcopal  church  in  New  London,  though  living  in  Groton.     The  com- 
bination of  the  death  of  this  young  wife,  the  strong  influences  from  that  side 
of  the  family,  the  formative  episode  at  Yale,  the  intimacies  fostered  with 
Cutler  in  Boston  and  Johnson  in  Stratford,  Connecticut,   (soon  to  become 
president  of  King's  College  in  New  York  City),  and  other  powerful  adherents 
of  the  Church  of  England,  at  length  induced  the  elder  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury 
in  T731   to  demit  his  Congregational  ministry.     As  a  widower  he  went  to 
England,  was  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  returned  to  America 
in  1732  as  a  missioner  of  the  Venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in   Foreign   Parts.     He   was   stationed   at  New   London,   and  soon 
married  Elizabeth  Powell,  an  ardent  Episcopalian  lady  of  the  Narragansett, 
Rhode  Island,  church. 

Ever  since  the  mission  of  Messrs.  Keith  and  Talbot  in  1702,  the  Epis- 
copal contingent  in  New  London  had  been  growing,  gathering  to  itself 
many  elements  of  strength.  As  a  port  of  entry,  with  its  official  collector  of 
customs,  a  group  of  English  families  somewhat  different  from  the  staid 
Puritan  strain  began  to  be  formed,  of  people  who  had  been  reared  in  the 
older  English  traditions  and  who  craved  the  forms  of  worship  that  followed 
the  church  year,  with  Christmas  and  Easter  emphasized,  and  the  venerable 
Episcopal  liturgy.  On  June  6,  1725.  a  subscription  had  been  begun  for  the 
erection  of  a  "church  for  the  service  of  Almighty  God  according  to  the 
Liturgie  of  the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  established."  The  names  of 
Mumford,  Merritt,  Buor  and  Goddard  appear  at  the  first,  followed  later 
by  the  Winthrops  and  Saltonstalls.  The  first  church  building  (undedi- 
cated  because  of  the  absence  of  a  Bishop)  was  erected  on  the  Parade.  It  was 
built  of  oak,  and  had  a  bell,  being  first  used  in  1732.  Rev.  Samuel  .Seabury, 
Sr.,  was  its  first  rector.  Wide  interest  was  taken  in  the  establishment  of 
this  church,  subscriptions  coming  from  as  far  afield  as  Newport  and  New 
York.  The  belfry  was  surmounted  by  a  staff  at  the  end  of  which  was  a 
gilded  ball  at  the  summit.     Once  upon  a  time  as  a  group  of  Indians  was 

X.L.— l-JO 


3o6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

parading  by,  one  of  the  Red  Men  shot  an  arrow  at  the  ball  and  the  arrow's 
head  became  embedded  so  deeply  in  the  ball  that  it  became  a  fixture. 

Jn  the  meanwhile,  another  of  the  Yale  group  reached  through  the  library, 
Rev.  Ebenezer  Punderson,  had  been  ordained  in  his  twenty-first  j-ear  as 
pastor  of  the  North  Groton  Congregational  Church,  succeeding  Rev.  Samuel 
Seabury,  St.  After  only  two  and  a  half  years  of  service,  Mt.  Punderson 
suddenly  announced  to  his  congregation  that  he  planned  to  seek  Episcopal 
ordination.  Strong  effort  was  made  to  keep  him,  but  in  vain.  A  number 
of  his  parishioners  in  the  northern  part  of  the  township  and  over  in  the 
town  of  Preston,  came  together  and  established  the  St.  James's  parish  of 
Poquctanock,  just  over  the  border  in  Preston.  After  being  inducted  into 
the  Episcopal  ministry  by  a  new  ordination,  Mr.  Punderson  made  the  Poque- 
tanock  church  the  basis  of  a  most  extensive  work  for  the  cause  he  had 
espoused.  The  reactions  from  the  extravagances  of  the  Great  Awakening 
proved  helpful  for  the  growth  of  his  more  orderly  and  dignified  conduct 
of  religious  services. 

The  faithful  ministry  of  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  Sr.,  in  New  London 
terminated  in  the  acceptance  of  a  call  from  the  church  at  Hempstead,  Long 
Island,  in  1743.  That  year  was  marked  by  the  strange  extravagancies  of 
the  followers  of  Davenport,  who  got  the  people  to  burn  books  and  costly 
clothing,  the  leader  himself  bringing  to  the  flames  a  pair  of  expensive  velvet 
breeches  as  his  sacrifice  of  luxury.  St.  James's  Church,  as  it  was  now  called, 
w'as  without  a  rector  until  the  coming  of  Rev.  Matthew  Graves,  a  native  of 
the  Isle  of  ^fan,  who  served  the  church  until  the  days  of  the  American 
Revolution.  He  was  a  bachelor,  peculiar  in  manner,  retiring  in  disposition, 
and  who  gave  offense  to  his  Episcopal  brethren  by  attending  the  ordination 
of  a  Congregational  minister.  The  growth  of  St.  James  was  quiet  and  steady. 
When  the  revolt  of  the  Colonies  took  place,  Mr.  Graves  could  not  violate 
his  oath  or  go  back  on  the  old  flag,  even  though  George  IIL  was  not  a  wise 
ruler.  His  church  people,  however,  were  filled  with  patriotic  colonial  fervor. 
Things  came  to  a  crisis,  when  on  November  14.  1778,  the  church  voted  that 
the  clerg}-man  must  pray  for  Congress  and  the  United  Colonies.  Mr.  Graves 
brought  on  a  riot  by  attempting  to  pray  for  the  royal  family.  He  was  sent 
under  a  flag  of  truce  to  New  York,  where  he  died  soon  after.  During  the 
Benedict  Arnold  raid  (September  6,  1781),  the  church,  probably  because  of 
the  notorious  American  sentiments  of  its  members,  was  burned  to  the 
ground.  This  catastrophe  laid  low  the  activities  of  St.  James  throughout 
the  remainder  of  the  war.  But  on  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace  in  178.5 
and  on  Easter  Monday  m.orning,  we  find  the  usual  annual  meeting  held  (April 
25,  1783)  and  the  project  of  rebuilding  was  undertaken. 

The  origin  of  Episcopacy  in  Norwich  is  somewhat  obscure.  Services 
seem  to  have  been  held  in  private  houses  in  Chelsea  (Norwich)  by  Rev. 
Samuel  Seabury,  Sr.,  and  later  by  Rev.  Ebenezer  Punderson  until  his  re- 
moval from  Poquetanok  to  New  Haven  in  1751.  An  edifice  for  worship 
was  constructed  on  the  site  of  the  present  Christ  Church  about  1750.  Eighty 
subscribers  assisted.  Between  1751  and  1763  the  new  organization  got  on 
with  lay  readers  and  occasional  clerical  supplies.     In  that  year,  Rev.  John 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  307 

I'eardsley  came  from  England,  serving  Christ  Church  for  five  years.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Rev.  John  T3'ler  in  1769,  whose  long  ministry  of  fifty- 
four  years  (to  1823)  seems  to  be  one  of  the  record  ministries  in  the  county. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Samuel  Seabury,  Jr.,  had  grown  to  manhood,  and 
was  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1748.  He  went  to  Scotland  to  study 
medicine,  but  was  led  to  change  to  the  study  of  theology.  He  was  ordained 
a  deacon  by  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  and  as  priest  by  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle. 
Returning  to  America,  he  served  several  churches  or  missions  in  New  Jersey 
before  marrying  and  settling  down  as  rector  at  Westchester,  New  York. 
During  the  Revolution  he  was  a  royalist,  and  served  as  chaplain  in  the 
British  army. 

L^pon  the  proclamation  of  peace,  the  Connecticut  clergymen  asked  Mr. 
Seabury  to  go  to  England  and  seek  consecration  as  their  Bishop.  This  he 
undertook  to  do.  But  such  was  the  bitterness  in  England  over  the  issue 
of  the  war  that  they  refused  to  consecrate  one  who  would  not  swear  fealty 
to  the  British  ruler.  Whereupon  Rev.  Samuel  Seaburv,  Jr.,  went  to  Aber- 
deen, Scotland,  and  was  consecrated  November  14,  1784,  as  a  Bishop  by  a 
Bishop  in  the  disestablished  Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland.  He  returned 
to  America  in  1785  via  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and  took  up  his  residence 
in  New  London.  His  wife  having  died,  his  daughter  took  charge  of  his 
home.  He  at  once  took  up  the  local  work  as  rector  in  addition  to  the 
burden  of  his  extensive  diocese,  to  which  Rhode  Island  was  soon  added. 
He  began  preaching  in  the  new  court  house,  until  in  September  he  could 
consecrate  the  new  St.  James's  Church,  then  located  on  Main  street. 

The  erection  of  this  new  edifice  was  a  heavy  task  to  the  little  company 
of  faithful  ones  left  after  the  war.  A  cupola  was  added  in  1794,  in  which  a 
French  bell,  brought  by  Captain  Hurlbut  from  the  West  Indies,  was  hung. 
To  New  London  from  all  over  the  United  States  came  candidates  for  holy 
office  for  consecration.  Innumerable  problems  came  to  Bishop  Seabury  for 
solution.  He  had  much  to  do  with  the  adaptation  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  to  American  uses.  Here  his  connection  with  the  Scotch  branch  of 
Episcopacy  was  especially  marked.  On  February  25,  1796,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-seven,  he  was  suddenly  stricken  down  by  apoplexy  and  left  his  many 
burdens  to  others. 

His  son,  Charles  Seabur\-,  was  elected  rector  on  March  28,  1796,  and  con- 
tinued the  local  work  until  1814.  As  noted  elsewhere,  these  were  years  of 
greatest  spiritual  decline  everywhere  in  New  England,  and  it  was  especially 
so  in  New  London  county.  Salaries  of  clergymen  and  cost  of  living  were  on 
a  starving  basis.  When  this  pastorate  came  to  an  end,  St.  James  was  con- 
tent to  get  on  for  a  while  with  a  lay  reader.  Rev.  Solomon  Blakeslee  found 
three  years  (1815-1818)  as  long  as  he  could  carry  on  the  work.  His  leader- 
ship was,  however,  signalized  by  the  installation  of  the  first  church  organ 
in  New  London.  Rev.  Bethel  Judd  was  the  succeeding  rector  (1818-1832). 
While  of  the  "evangelical  school",  he  strenuously  asserted  the  divine  right  of 
Episcopacy.  During  his  ministry  a  Sunday  school  was  established  at  St. 
James.  Mr.  Judd  had  an  admiring  parishioner  in  a  Colonel  Walbach,  a 
Roman  Catholic,  who  had  a  pew  in  St.  James.     When  Bishop  Cheverus  of 


3o8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Boston  came  to  administer  the  rites  of  the  Catholic  church  in  New  London, 
the  rector  had  him  preach  in  his  pulpit.  Not  to  be  outdone  in  courtesy,  the 
Congregational  minister  opened  also  his  pulpit  to  the  genial  Catholic  Bishop, 
who  preached  on  "Martha  and  Marj'". 

The  short  ministry  of  Rev.  Isaac  W.  Hallam  (1833-34)  was  followed  by 
the  long  and  fruitful  labors  of  Rev.  Robert  A.  Hallam  (1835-1877).  During 
the  enlargement  of  the  church  building,  services  were  held  by  invitation  in 
the  Second  Congregational  Church.  The  growth  of  St.  James  steadily  ad- 
vanced under  this  wise  ministry,  calling  for  still  larger  facilities.  On  Novem- 
ber 3,  1847,  the  cornerstone  of  the  present  beautiful  gothic  structure  in  which 
St.  James  worships  was  laid.  Three  long  years  of  heroic  struggle  brought 
the  consecration  day  (June  11,  1850).  Mr.  Hallam  was  formally  constituted 
rector  on  August  ist  of  that  same  year.  In  1855  the  will  of  Jonathan  Coit, 
Esq.,  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church,  gave  the  community  a  thrill  when 
it  announced  that  each  Protestant  church  in  New  London  (seven  in  all)  had 
received  a  substantial  bequest.    The  sum  of  $3,000  came  to  St.  James. 

The  present  parish  house  was  erected  in  1859  as  a  rectory.  In  1867  the 
church  was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a  vestry-.  In  1872  an  associate 
clergyman  was  appointed  (Rev.  Robert  M.  Duff),  who  was  active  in  the  be- 
ginnings of  the  Bishop  Seabury  Memorial  Church  in  Groton  (1875).  ^^■ 
Hallam's  long  and  blessed  ministry  terminated  with  his  death  in  1877.  Rev. 
William  Buckingham,  the  associate  minister  from  1876,  succeeded  as  rector 
until  1885.  The  year  following,  Rev.  Alanson  Douglass  Miller  began  a  short 
ministrj^  (1886-1889),  when  Rev.  Alfred  Pool  Grint,  Ph.D.,  came  for  a  service 
of  nineteen  years.  In  1S96  the  centenary  of  the  death  of  Bishop  Seabury 
was  commemorated.  In  1900,  on  St.  Barnabas  Day,  the  fiftieth  annniversary 
of  the  consecration  of  the  present  place  of  worship  was  observed.  In  1910, 
Rev.  Philip  ]\Iarkham  Kerredge  began  his  work  at  St.  James,  during  which 
the  growth  has  gone  on  steadily.  The  installation  of  an  organ  in  memory  of 
Mrs.  Morton  AI.  Plant  equipped  the  stately  church  to  voice  the  deepest 
things  of  the  spirit.  Under  its  ministry  a  strong,  broad.  Christian  fellow- 
ship is  drawing  all  Christians  together. 

All  this  while,  the  Norwich  phase  of  the  Archdeaconry  developed  apace. 
The  name  "Christ's  Church  of  Chelsea"  was  first  used  in  1785  as  the  ministry 
of  Rev.  John  Tyler  began  to  gather  up  the  broken  fragments  after  the  Revo- 
lution days.  In  1789,  Christ's  Church  was  moved  to  a  more  central  part  of 
Norwich,  and  dedicated  by  Bishop  Seabury  in  1791.  The  revered  rector  was 
also  an  adept  in  medicine,  and  went  far  and  wide  among  all  types  of  people 
in  Norwich,  healing  the  bod}-  as  well  as  the  soul.  In  1823  he  was  succeeded 
by  Rev.  Seth  Paddock,  under  whose  administration  the  parish  greatly  ex- 
panded from  sixty  to  nearly  four  hundred  families  in  a  score  of  years.  It 
was  during  the  succeeding  ministry  of  Rev.  William  F.  Morgan  that  the  new 
parish  of  Trinity  Church  was  set  off  in  the  growing  city,  with  Rev.  Edward 
O.  Flagg  for  its  first  rector.  Both  churches  have  had  a  distinguished  min- 
istry. The  succession  at  Christ  Church  has  such  names  as  Walden,  Banks, 
Binney.  Geisy,  Nelson  (now  Bishop  of  Albany),  Emerj',  Davies  (now  Bishop 
of  Western  Massachusetts).    The  present  rector,  the  Rev.  Richard  R.  Graham, 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  309 

is   (1922)   rounding  out  ten  years  of  strong  service.     The  rector  of  Trinity 
Church  is  also  Archdeacon,  the  Rev.  J.  Eldred  Brown. 

In  the  meanwhile.  Calvary  Church  was  established  in  Stonington  in 
1847,  with  Rev.  Junius  Marshall  Willey  as  rector.  Its  beautiful  church  was 
designed  by  the  distinguished  architect,  Upjohn.  St.  Mark's  of  Mystic  was 
organized  into  a  full  parish  in  1865.  In  Norwich  came  a  third  parish  in  due 
course  of  time,  St.  Andrew's,  and  later  another  at  Yantic.  The  missionary 
zeal  of  the  Archdeaconry  has  added  a  number  of  smaller  churches,  chapels 
and  mission  stations,  as  set  down  in  the  roster  at  the  beginning  of  this  state- 
ment. It  is  as  true  of  these  Episcopal  churches  as  it  is  of  the  churches  of 
the  other  denominations,  that  today  the  ministry  and  the  churches  average 
as  well  if  not  better  than  at  any  time  in  the  past  and  look  forward  to  a 
strong  future  in  closer  relations  with  the  common  heart  of  Christianity 
throughout  the  county.  The  Archdeaconry  embraces  sixteen  churches, 
chapels  and  other  places  of  worship  within  New  London  county,  several  of 
them  ranking  with  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  architecture  in  the  State. 
It  has  a  company  of  a  dozen  devoted  clergy,  who  have  leadership  over  2,382 
communicants  and  many  more  than  ten  thousand  parishioners. 

VI. 

METHODISM  IN  NEW  DONDON  COUNTY 

No  phase  in  the  development  of  religion  in  New  London  county  is  more 
picturesque  than  that  of  the  work  done  under  the  auspices  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  Though  it  was  the  latest  of  the  larger  Protestant  bodies 
to  enter  and  cultivate  this  field,  and  thus  escaped  all  but  the  very  minor  and 
quite  negligible  persecutions  incident  to  any  religious  propaganda,  Methodism 
came  to  do  a  most  needed  work.  The  imagination  follows  the  circuit  rider 
as  he  made  his  way  about  the  county  from  sympathetic  house  to  house  and 
from  class-meeting  to  class-meeting,  then  from  school-house  to  school-house 
and  finally  from  church  to  church,  pressing  home  in  free  utterance  of  prayer 
and  sermon  the  vital  things  of  a  plain  gospel. 

We  are  particularly  attracted  by  the  heoric  figure  of  Jesse  Lee,  who 
passed  through  the  southern  part  of  the  county  in  1789.  Tradition  tells  of 
his  preaching  at  Lyme  and  Niantic,  but  the  date  of  September  2,  1789,  comes 
clearly  to  view,  as  on  that  Wednesday  he  preached  in  New  London  at  the 
newly-built  court-house  the  first  sermon  under  Methodist  auspices.  His 
reception  seems  to  have  been  most  kindly,  according  to  a  New  London  prece- 
dent, and  the  fervid  apostle  of  a  faith  that  was  stirring  the  English-speaking 
race  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  was  impressed  with  the  hunger  for  warm- 
hearted and  vital  religion  in  New  London.  We  will  recall  that  the  pastor 
of  the  First  Church  of  Christ  in  New  London  at  the  time  was  Rev.  Henry 
Channing,  who  was  accounted  a  Unitarian  in  faith,  and  was  receiving  into 
membership  into  his  church  on  the  basis  of  reputable  moral  character,  going 
to  the  limit  in  applying  the  spirit  of  the  "Halfway  Covenant."  The  Episcopal 
Church  there  was  at  a  low  ebb  in  its  somewhat  formal  religious  life.  Bap- 
tists had  not  yet  entered  this  seaport  town.    Indeed,  Connecticut  as  a  whole 


3IO  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

seemed  to  need  something  that  Methodism  could  give,  and  was  the  open 
door  to  all  New  England.  On  September  25th  of  that  same  year  (17S9), 
Jesse  Lee  organized  at  Stratford,  Connecticut,  the  very  first  Methodist  church 
in  New  England,  where  some  eighty  years  before  Episcopacy,  not  without 
opposition,  had  also  found  its  open  door  to  Connecticut. 

In  1791,  Bishop  Asbury  came  through  New  London  on  his  way  to  Lynn, 
Massachusetts,  and  preached  by  way  of  paying  for  the  hospitality  received. 
In  1793  a  Methodist  conference  held  at  Tolland,  Connecticut,  appointed 
George  Roberts  the  elder  in  charge  of  all  work  in  Connecticut.  The  State 
was  organized  into  five  circuits,  of  which  one  was  the  New  London  circuit, 
embracing  all  Eastern  Connecticut  from  the  Massachusetts  line  to  the  Sound. 
In  October  of  that  year  (1793)  a  "class"  was  formed  in  New  London,  and 
Elder  George  Roberts  began  preaching  in  the  court-house.  One  early  con- 
vert was  Epaphras  Kibby,  who  in  1798  began  his  work  as  a  travelling  preacher, 
known  throughout  New  England,  carrying  on  a  ministry  sixty-seven  years  in 
length.  We  have  seen  elsewhere  the  mighty  stirring  of  waters  in  New  Lon- 
don county  during  a  general  revival  in  1794,  and  Methodism  must  be  given 
credit  for  its  pervasive  power.  Throughout  the  circuit  219  persons  were  now 
gathered  into  "classes,"  and  thirty-nine  of  these  joined  the  Methodist  mem- 
bership in  New  London.  One  of  these  was  Daniel  Burrows,  who  became  a 
local  preacher,  a  member  of  Congress,  and  one  in  the  convention  that  adopted 
the  present  State  Constitution.  On  July  15,  1795,  Bishop  Asbury  held  a 
conference  in  the  home  of  this  Daniel  Burrows,  when  nineteen  preachers 
were  present.  In  1798  the  first  church  was  built.  On  a  Friday  it  was  "raised," 
and  on  the  Sunday  following  it  was  dedicated,  Jesse  Lee  and  Bishop  Asbury 
being  present  and  preaching.  This  first  Methodist  church  building  (com- 
pleted in  1800)  stood  on  Golden  Hill,  at  the  corner  of  Union  and  Methodist 
streets.  On  April  17,  1808,  a  second  conference  was  held  in  New  London, 
with  fifty  pi;eachers  in  attendance.  The  little  church  not  being  large  enough, 
the  authorities  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ  (Congregational)  courteously 
tendered  their  church  for  the  ordination  services,  Bishop  Asbury  officiating 
and  preaching.  In  1816  a  revival  of  exceptional  proportions  swept  the  whole 
region  round  about,  affecting  all  classes  in  the  community  and  all  denomina- 
tions. Its  principal  human  agency  is  manifested  by  the  fact  that  three  hun- 
dred persons  were  received  at  that  time  into  the  Methodist  church. 

This  made  it  necessary  to  build  a  new  church.  The  original  structure 
was  sold  and  removed  (to  be  again  used,  however),  and  the  new  building 
was  erected  on  the  old  site  in  1818.  In  that  year  the  New  London  church 
at  its  own  request  was  made  a  station,  and  Rev.  Asa  Kent  was  placed  in 
charge.  Of  necessity,  a  careful  reorganization  of  the  church  ensued  which, 
with  many  other  causes,  brought  many  years  of  discord  to  New  London 
Methodism.  By  1820  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons  were  admitted  into  the 
church,  sixty-eight  names  were  removed  from  the  roll,  twenty  dropped, 
three  persons  withdrew,  and  twenty-four  were  expelled. 

In  1820,  Rev.  Elijah  Hedding  (afterwards  Bishop)  came  to  the  charge. 
He  found  in  the  church  a  "boisterous  element"  that  overtaxed  his  strength, 
and  he  had  to  leave  with  broken  health.     In  1827  things  came  to  a  crisis  in 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  311 

the  church,  with  disagreements  among  trustees,  church  people  and  minister, 
which  led  to  an  open  rupture.  In  1829  the  church  building  was  shut  bv  the 
trustees  against  the  members,  who  thereupon  secured  the  use  of  the  original 
church  building.  The  trouble  brewed  for  ten  years.  Then  (1830)  a  new 
board  of  trustees  with  Rev.  James  Potter  (1831-2),  managed  by  good  admin- 
istration and  firm  discipline  to  settle  the  difficulties.  Some  were  expelled, 
others  withdrew.  A  revival  ensued.  But  bitter  contention  over  the  slavery 
question  led  forty  members  to  form  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  Episcopal  church, 
which  discarded  the  bishopric,  and  were  given  the  use  of  the  church  building 
by  the  trustees. 

The  original  Methodist  church  was  now  reduced  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty-five  members.  The  meetings  were  held  as  best  they  could  be,  finally 
in  the  court  house.  Here  the  work  prospered,  a  gracious  revival  added  largely 
to  the  membership,  a  project  for  a  new  building  went  forward,  and  the  new 
sructure  on  Washington  street  was  dedicated  in  1842. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  larger  work  of  the  New  London  circuit  went  on 
apace.  Jesse  Lee  had  preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  Norwich  Town, 
in  the  home  of  Mrs.  Thankful  Pierce,  on  June  25,  1790.  Bishop  Asbury  had 
secured  an  enterprising  audience  at  8  a.  m.  on  July  20,  1795-  ^"d  ^  "class" 
had  been  formed  in  1796  with  Solomon  Williams  as  class-leader.  The  "Nor- 
wich North"  Methodist  church  building  was  dedicated  in  1831,  Erastus 
Wentworth,  Esq.,  a  local  Congregationalist,  materially  assisting.  The  con- 
version of  his  son  Erastus  in  the  ensuing  revival  amply  repaid  him.  This 
was  the  Rev.  Erastus  Wentworth.  This  church  had  a  steady  career,  broken 
by  a  marked  revival  in  1857,  when  sixty  were  received  into  the  church. 

Early  in  that  century,  at  the  Landing,  a  Methodist  church  had  been 
organized  and  a  meeting-house  erected.  But  the  great  flood  of  February, 
1824,  had  swept  away  the  building.  Baptists,  Universalists,  Congregational- 
ists  and  Episcopalians  hastened  each  to  offer  the  bereft  Methodists  a  place 
for  worship.  The  General  Assembly  at  Hartford  voted  to  have  the  Governor 
issue  a  proclamation  to  all  churches  in  the  State  to  set  aside  a  certain  Sunday 
for  raising  funds  to  help  replace  the  Methodist  church  at  Norwich  Landing. 
This  netted  $463.32,  and  the  new  house  was  dedicated  in  1825  and  was  called 
the  Sachem  Street  Church.  The  East  Main  Street  Methodist  Church,  in 
another  part  of  the  city,  had  been  organized  and  its  meeting-house  dedicated 
in  1816.  In  1854,  the  Norwich  Central  Church  was  organized  and  endorsed 
by  the  Conference.  It  dedicated  its  meeting-house  in  1859.  At  last,  in  1895, 
through  the  wisdom  and  indefatigable  energy  of  Presiding  Elder  E.  Tirrell, 
aided  by  the  pastors  of  the  three  churches,  a  consolidation  was  accomplished, 
which  secured  the  approval  of  the  Quarterly  Conference.  The  new  church 
was  called  the  Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Norwich.  It  has  fully 
justified  the  wisdom  of  those  who  brought  it  into  existence.  It  has  had  a 
succession  of  strong  pastors.  On  its  quarter  of  a  century  milestone  it  re- 
ported (1920)  a  membership  of  four  hundred  and  seventy-two,  which  has 
since  had  a  marked  increase.  Its  present  (1922)  pastor.  Rev.  R.  L.  Roberts, 
has  the  work  strongly  in  hand  and  the  prospects  are  most  cheering. 

But  the  genius  of  Methodism  is  quite  as  much  seen  in  its  rural  activities. 


312  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Colchester  was  reached  as  early  as  1806,  though  a  church  was  not  built 
until  1842.  Methodism  did  a  distinctly  valuable  work  at  that  point  as  long 
as  the  mills  were  active.  Since  the  closing  of  these,  the  church  has  dwindled, 
and  is  now  little  more  than  a  supplied  preaching  station. 

The  Gales  Ferr)'  Church  is  a  successful  rural  exemplar  of  Methodism 
in  New  London  county.  George  Roberts  preached  here  at  an  open  air 
service  in  1793,  and  for  ten  years  there  were  occasional  services  in  homes 
or  out  under  the  sky.  A  class  was  formed  in  1803  under  the  leadership  of 
Ralph  Hurlbutt.  In  1806  he  was  licensed  to  exhort,  and  in  1810  to  preach, 
becoming  practicalh'  the  pastor.  He  is  set  down  in  the  histories  as  their 
first  preacher,  1806-1840.  An  abandoned  building  formerly  used  by  an  old 
Separatist  Congregational  Church,  three  miles  to  the  east  of  Gales  Ferry, 
was  purchased  and  moved  (1803)  to  the  site  of  the  present  church.  In  1859 
the  present  church  edifice  was  dedicated,  and  later  there  came  a  parsonage. 
The  laymen  and  women  of  this  church  have  been  especially  active.  Its  mem- 
berbership  in  1920  was  54. 

The  Old  Mystic  Methodist  Church  dates  from  1826,  ten  years  after 
school-house  services  had  been  held.  The  first  pastor  lived  and  preached 
in  the  home  of  John  Bennet  for  a  year.  In  1827  the  mill  proprietors  (Hydes) 
became  deeply  interested  in  the  organization,  and  the  school-house  was  re- 
opened. In  1831,  Rev.  Daniel  Dorchester  was  appointed  to  the  Mystic  Circuit 
(including  Griswold,  Preston  and  North  Stonington).  The  church  building 
came  in  1849,  on'y  to  be  destroyed  by  fire  in  1851.  The  Jubilee  was  cele- 
brated in  1876. 

The  prosperous  Uncasville  church  dates  from  1829,  when  a  small  society 
was  formed  not  without  opposition.  But  in  1835  the  first  meeting-house  was 
erected  and  the  work  put  on  a  strong  basis.  Revival  after  revival  blessed 
the  church.  In  1872  the  present  fine  structure  was  erected,  and  later  a  chapel 
added.  Rev.  Charles  Smith  is  in  the  midst  (1922)  of  a  strong  pastorate.  The 
church  is  an  active  member  of  the  Federation  of  Churches  of  New  London 
and  vicinity. 

The  Griswold  or  Voluntown  organization  (Bethel)  dates  back  to  1841. 
In  that  year  the  meeting-house  was  erected  on  land  deeded  for  999  years. 
In  that  same  year  (1841)  the  Mystic  (Bridge)  Church  was  started,  con- 
nected at  first  with  the  old  Mystic  organization.  It  was  the  outcome  of  a 
great  revival  in  which  the  famous  Elder  Swan  (Baptist)  of  New  London 
co-operated  with  the  Methodist  pastor,  Rev.  Benjamin  C.  Phelps,  at  Old 
Mystic.  At  the  close  of  the  meetings,  both  Baptist  and  Methodist  converts 
went  down  into  the  river  together  and  were  baptized  by  immersion.  In  1842 
the  first  settled  minister  was  appointed  at  Mystic.  The  present  church  was 
erected  in  1867.  Rev.  Jerome  Greer  is  (1922)  in  the  midst  of  a  very  success- 
ful pastorate  in  Mystic  and  Noank. 

Jesse  Lee,  en  route  through  Lyme,  preached,  as  tradition  would  have  it, 
on  September  i,  1789.  The  growth  of  Methodism,  however,  was  very  slow. 
In  1843  a  church  was  dedicated,  largely  through  the  assistance  of  Stephen 
Peck,  who,  tradition  says,  had  been  a  leader  of  a  rough  opposition  gang.  At 
a  meeting  in  a  private  house  he  had  arisen  as  a  sign  for  a  riot  to  begin,  when 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  313 

a  cat  leaped  upon  his  back  from  a  bureau  and  so  frightened  him  that  before 
the  meeting  was  over  he  had  yielded  to  the  earnest  appeal  of  the  preacher. 
The  Methodist  work  does  not  seem  to  have  thrived  in  this  region,  and  in 
1920  a  membership  of  only  twelve  was  reported. 

The  same  year  (1842)  the  traditions  of  the  preaching  of  Jesse  Lee  in 
Niantic  bore  fruit  and  a  church  was  organized.  This  had  been  preceded  by 
class-meetings  and  itinerant  preaching.  A  church  was  built  at  that  time. 
In  1873  the  present  edifice  was  erected,  and  later  a  parsonage.  In  1882-83  a 
large  number  of  Swedish  Methodists  joined  the  church.  In  1890  an  Epworth 
League  was  established.  Rev.  G.  H.  Wright  is  the  present  pastor  (1922), 
and  the  membership  stood  at  ninety-three  in  1920. 

The  Jewett  City  church  was  started  in  1874  with  a  class  and  a  Sunday 
school.  A  revival  service  in  that  year  was  followed  by  a  church  organiza- 
tion in  1875.  Baltic,  Gardner  Lake  and  Versailles  were  other  points  where 
small  groups  of  Methodists  formed  churches,  and  where,  at  one  time  or 
another,  organizations  have  been  active. 

In  1863  a  band  of  Abolitionists  came  out  from  the  Baptist  church  in 
Noank,  and  seem  to  have  kept  together  for  a  number  of  years.  In  1878, 
after  a  revival  service,  a  Methodist  church  was  built.  This  organization 
is  linked  by  a  common  pastorate  with  the  Mystic   (Bridge)   Church. 

We  left  the  Methodist  Church  at  New  London  just  moving  into  the 
Washington  street  meeting-house  in  1842.  Here,  after  all  its  ancient  troubles, 
the  church  greatly  thrived.  On  June  4,  1843,  it  celebrated  the  semi-cen- 
tennial of  Methodism  in  New  London.  Revivals  and  steady  growth  by  1854 
had  made  the  building  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the  organization.  The 
difficult  project  was  carried  to  a  successful  issue,  and  the  imposing  Methodist 
church  building  on  Federal  street  (now  the  Jewish  Synagogue)  was  dedi- 
cated in  1856.  The  legacy  from  Jonathan  Coit,  Esq.  (Congregationalist), 
was  a  substantial  aid  in  this  effort. 

In  this  much  enlarged  equipment,  Methodism  in  New  London  forged 
ahead  under  a  series  of  able  pastors.  A  parsonage  was  secured  in  1882 
through  the  activities  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society.  Bishop  Ames  presided 
over  a  conference  here  in  1864,  and  other  conferences  were  entertained  in 
1877  and  1891.  In  1893  the  centennial  of  the  advent  of  Methodism  in  New 
London  County  was  duly  commemorated. 

The  lengthened  pastorate  of  the  late  Rev.  C.  Harley  Smith  (1911-1918) 
in  the  Federal  Street  Church  will  be  long  remembered  by  the  present  gen- 
eration. 

In  1918  began  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Myron  T.  Center.  It  soon  became 
evident  that  Methodism  in  New  London  needed  a  much  ampler  equipment 
for  its  strong  development.  Fortunately,  it  had  kept  a  solid  unity  in  the 
city,  and  had  a  host  of  friends  on  the  outside.  With  marked  heroism,  the 
pastor  and  his  ofificial  board  took  hold  of  the  project.  Land  was  secured 
for  a  new  structure  directly  north  of  the  old  court  house  in  which  Jesse  Lee 
preached  in  1793.  With  rare  business  sagacity,  the  project  was  carried 
through,  and  the  beautiful  church,  with  ample  equipment  for  social  purpose, 
was  dedicated  by  Bishop  Edwin  H.  Hughes,  November  13,  1921.     The  dedi- 


314  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

cation  came  at  the  close  of  a  series  of  evangelistic  services  in  the  church  and 
community  conducted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Milton  S.  Reese.  One  most  interesting 
and  inspiring  event  following  the  dedication  services  was  the  welcoming 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  new  members  as  the  first  official  act  in 
the  newly  consecrated  building.  This  brought  the  entire  membership  up  to 
seven  hundred  and  nine.  The  church  and  its  pastor  have  been  active  in  the 
Federation  of  the  Churches  of  New  London  County  and  Vicinity  since  its 
origin  in  1920. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  while  Methodism  in  New  London  county  stands 
fourth  in  numbers  among  the  Protestant  bodies,  it  has  been  a  powerful 
element  in  the  spiritual  development  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  south-eastern 
Connecticut.  The  New  London  county  contingent  of  the  Norwich  District 
under  the  administration  of  Rev.  William  H.  Bath  as  superintendent,  in- 
cludes eighteen  churches  and  preaching  stations,  with  about  twelve  hun- 
dred members.  They  form  a  strong  harmonizing  element  in  the  religious 
life  of  the  county. 

VII. 

OTHER  RELIGIOUS  BODIES  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Scattered  throughout  New  London  are  a  large  number  of  Protestant 
denominations  with  one  or  more  small  organizations  doing  faithful  work  for 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  In  New  London  there  are  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church,  the  A.  M.  E.  Zion  Church,  All  Souls'  Church  (Federated  Universalist- 
Unitarian)*  and  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  together  with  a  number 
of  auxiliary  organizations  like  the  Learned  Mission  and  the  Salvation  Army. 
The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  form  the  specialized  institutional  work 
for  young  men  and  women  by  the  churches.  In  Norwich  there  are  also 
similar  groups  of  organizations,  the  Universalist  Church  being  of  long 
standing  in  that  community.  The  data  for  all  this  scattered  eftort  is  not 
easy  to  gather. 

THE  YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION 

Among  the  many  organizations  which  have  come  into  existence  in  this 
county  during  the  past  sixty  years,  none  has  proved  more  effective  or  valuable 
than  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  On  June  i,  1867,  in  the  town 
of  New  London,  forty-seven  young  men  met  and  organized  a  "Y.  M.  C.  A.," 
which  has  existed  continuously  up  to  the  present  day  with  increasing  value 
to  the  churches  and  the  community,  and  from  which  thousands  of  young 
men  and  boys  have  carried  influence  and  inspiration  into  other  States  and 
perhaps  into  foreign  lands.  As  the  years  passed.  Associations  were  formed 
in  other  towns  in  the  county,  but  their  history  is  brief,  the  work  having  been 
abandoned  for  various  reasons,  principally  lack  of  trained  leadership. 

In  those  early  days  the  activities  of  this  Association  were  largely  of  a 
religious  nature,  and  therefore  did  not  appeal  to  young  men  of  all  classes. 
At  the  same  time  the  social  feature  was  recognized  by  the  directors  as  some- 
what necessary ;  they  also  encouraged  the  formation  of  a  Literary  Societj', 
which  became  a  means  of  benefit  to  those  who  were  interested  in  it. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  315 

Three  years  later,  in  1870,  the  records  showed  a  decided  increase  in  the 
membership  and  in  the  amount  of  work  which  had  been  accomplished.  More 
religious  meetings  were  being  held  in  different  sections  of  the  town,  a  build- 
ing fund  of  $1,000  had  been  accumulated,  and  other  features  which  had  been 
added  were  attracting  the  favorable  attention  of  the  public. 

For  the  next  decade  the  work  moved  on  in  the  usual  way,  with  the 
emphasis  still  on  the  religious  phase,  but  during  the  period  1880-1900,  the 
last  twenty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  scope  of  the  work  was  broad- 
ened, and  in  1885  the  first  general  secretary,  Mr.  R.  F.  True,  was  chosen  to 
guide  the  Association's  affairs  and  to  devote  his  whole  time  to  carrymg  out 
its  important  program  for  young  men  and  boys.  Mr.  True  assumed  his 
duties  in  December,  and  the  movement  advanced  steadily.  After  two  years 
he  resigned,  but  he  had  demonstrated  to  the  directors  that  a  general  secre- 
tary was  essential  to  the  success  of  the  Association,  and  the  vacant  position 
was  soon  filled  by  Mr.  A.  L.  Willis,  who  had  been  an  active  worker  in  the 
New  Haven  Association  for  a  number  of  years.  Efficiency  in  all  departments 
characterized  his  administration.  Particularly  noticeable  were  the  increased 
membership  and  the  greater  prominence  given  to  the  physical  department. 

After  the  departure  of  Mr.  Willis  at  the  end  of  two  years,  a  temporary 
secretary  served  for  a  few  months.  Then,  on  June  i,  1891,  a  permanent 
secretary  was  secured  in  the  person  of  Mr.  F.  H.  Law,  a  graduate  of  the  Inter- 
national Training  School  of  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  who  filled  the  position 
four  years.  When  he  gave  it  up  and  left  the  city,  he  had  the  assurance  that 
his  labors  were  much  appreciated  and  that  the  directors  and  members  greatly 
regretted  his  decision. 

Mr.  Law  was  followed  by  Mr.  Richard  W.  Mansfield,  who  had  cooperated 
with  him  as  assistant  secretary.  Mr.  Mansfield  remained  in  charge  of  the 
Association  for  seventeen  years,  doing  a  constructive  work.  A  building  was 
secured  in  the  form  of  a  residential  home,  to  which  a  gymnasium  was  added 
as  a  valuable  asset  to  the  property.  The  whole  plant  was  valued  at  about 
$20,000.  Mr.  Mansfield  made  numberless  friends.  When  he  resigned  as  the 
executive  head  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  he  was  given  the  position  of  city  mission- 
ary, which  he  still  occupies  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  all  the  people  of  the 
city. 

The  next  in  chronological  order  was  Mr.  Charles  A.  Green,  formerly  of 
New  Jersey.  In  the  four  years  which  he  served  as  general  secretary,  dating 
from.  1913,  he  did  a  noble  work.  The  old  property  was  disposed  of  and  a 
new  and  commodious  structure,  erected  at  a  cost  of  about  $150,000,  was  dedi- 
cated on  February  16,  1916.  A  few  months  later,  Mr.  Green  was  called  to 
a  larger  field,  and  Mr.  John  C.  Church  succeeded  him  at  New  London,  con- 
tinuing in  office  until  1920.  The  present  general  secretary  is  Mr.  Clyde  L. 
Williamson.  The  work  of  the  organization  is  in  a  prosperous  condition  and 
the  outlook  for  the  future  is  most  encouraging. 

The  foregoing  facts  pertain  to  the  town  and  city  of  New  London,  but 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  movement  in  the  county,  even  in  those  remote  days,  was 
not  confined  to  that  one  place,  for  in  1870  the  young  men  of  Norwich  organ- 
ized an  Association  which  flourished  for  a  while,  then  was  discontinued  for 


3i6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

the  time  being,  because  the  necessary  support  from  the  community  was  with- 
held. After  several  years  had  elapsed,  interest  was  re-created  in  the  welfare 
of  young  men  and  boys,  and  a  new  Association  was  organized  in  1885,  which 
has  been  doing  a  most  excellent  work  throughout  the  past  thirty-seven  years, 
with  the  loyal  approval  and  liberal  financial  support  of  the  public-spirited 
citizens.  One  building  was  provided  and  dedicated  in  1897.  At  this  writing 
a  new  and  more  modern  structure  is  being  erected  and  the  old  one  is  soon  to 
be  sold. 

The  activities  of  this  Association  have  been  broad.  The  members  have 
obtained  rich  benefits  for  themselves,  but  they  have  also  endeavored  to  carry 
out  the  purpose  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Brotherhood — "A  work  for  young  men, 
by  young  men."  Nearly  four  decades  ago  the  "Rose  of  New  England"  found 
its  place  among  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  of  America. 
Through  the  intervening  years  it  has  strengthened  a  host  of  young  men  and 
boys  physically,  socially,  educationally  and  religiously,  or  has  provided  them 
with  employment  or  homes,  or  has  given  them  helpful  counsel  and  advice. 

The  board  of  directors  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  their  success  in 
securing  such  efficient  men  as  leaders  for  the  work.  As  they  have  come  to 
the  field  in  turn  and  assumed  their  duties  and  discharged  their  responsibilities 
as  general  secretaries,  they  have  seemed  to  be,  each  one,  performing  his  part 
in  the  same  infinite  plan.  Beginning  with  Mr.  C.  K.  Flanders  and  continuing 
in  succession,  the  list  contains  the  names  of  Messrs.  R.  S.  Ross,  I.  V.  Cob- 
leigh,  O.  E.  Ryther,  F.  H.  Merrill,  F.  R.  Starkey,  W.  A.  Morse,  and  Edwin 
Hill,  who  is  in  the  field  today,  having  the  confidence  of  all  the  people. 

It  would  not  be  possible  to  express  in  financial  terms  or  in  statistics 
what  has  been  done  by  these  two  organizations.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
time  and  money  invested  in  both  have  produced  results  far  beyond  what  the 
most  sanguine  could  have  anticipated.  Because  of  it  all,  Connecticut  has 
better  sons,  better  fathers,  better  citizens,  better  laymen  as  well  as  ministers, 
to  direct  Christian  activities. 

The  most  recent  development  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  movement  in  New  Lon- 
don county  is  what  is  known  as  the  "County  Work,"  which  was  begun  on 
March  10,  1919,  under  the  direction  of  State  County  Work  Secretary,  Mr. 
Harry  Hedley  Smith.  On  that  date  a  county  organization  was  effected  on 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  basis,  and  a  committee  was  elected.  The  same  plan  is  in 
operation  today  and  the  committee  consists  of  the  following:  Benjamin  T. 
Marshall,  chairman,  New  London  ;  W.G.  Park,  vice-chairman,  Hanover;  Allyn 
L.  Brown,  vice-chairman,  Norwich;  Ralph  H.  Melcer,  treasurer,  Montville; 
George  H.  Bathgate,  East  Lyme ;  Frank  Palmer,  Bozrah ;  E.  T.  Bunyan,  Col- 
chester; Frank  E.  Robinson,  Griswold ;  C.  W.  Allyn,  Groton;  Otto  Pultz, 
Lebanon;  Reginald  L.  Lord,  Lyme;  Hadlai  A.  Hull,  New  London;  E.  E. 
Rogers,  New  London ;  H.  M.  Swinney,  Niantic ;  C.  E.  Carpenter,  Norwich ; 
Harry  M.  Clark,  Norwich;  Dr.  A.  L.  Stebbins,  Colchester;  Fred  H.  Topliflf, 
Versailles ;  James  Cooper,  Mystic. 

A  county  secretary,  Mr.  C.  A.  Pipher,  is  in  charge  of  the  work,  with  an 
office  at  102  Thayer  building,  Norwich.     There  are  twelve  groups  organized 


RELIGION   IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  317 

in   thirty-two   committees  in   the   county,   in   which   effective   work   is  being 
carried  on. 

This  is  only  a  brief  statement,  but  to  the  thoughtful  reader  it  cannot 
fail  to  indicate  to  a  high  degree  the  power  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation in  the  building  of  manhood  in  the  local  community  and  the  county, 
and  also  in  the  larger  spheres  of  the  State  and  the  country. 

VIII. 

ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCHES 

The  Roman  Catholic  churches  of  New  London  county  are  in  the  Diocese 
of  Hartford,  which  also  embraces  the  entire  State  of  Connecticut,  and  with 
officiary  as  follows:  Rt.  Rev.  John  J.  Nilan,  D.D.,  Bishop;  Rt.  Rev.  John 
G.  Murray,  Auxiliary  to  the  Bishop ;  Rt.  Rev.  Monsignor  Thomas  S.  Duggan, 
Vicar  General ;  Rev.  William  H.  Flynn,  Chancellor  and  Secretary. 

The  manager  of  the  Diocesan  Board  for  the  Protection  of  Dependent 
Children  for  New  London  county  is  Rev.  John  N.  Broderick,  of  Norwich. 
The  Diocesan  director  of  the  Holy  Name  Society  and  district  director  of  New 
London  county  is  Rev.  William  A.  Keefe,  of  Norwich. 

There  are  seventeen  parishes  in  New  London  county,  of  which  there  are 
in  the  city  of  New  London  three  parishes ;  in  the  town  of  Norwich,  five. 
These  and  the  other  churches  are  as  follows : 

St.  Mary's  Star  of  the  Sea,  New  London — Pastor.  Rev.  Timothy  M. 
Crowlev,  LL.D.  Assistants — Rev.  Alexander  W'ollschlager  and  Rev.  John 
J.  McGrath. 

St.  Joseph's,  New  London — Pastor,  Rev.  William  C.  Fitzsimons. 

Our  Lady  of  Perpetual  Help,  New  London — Pastor,  Rev.  Paul  Kosczyk. 

St.  Patrick's  in  Norwich  City,  205  Broadway — Pastor,  Rev.  M.  H.  May. 
St.  Patrick's  Parochial  School  is  in  charge  of  teachers  from  the  Convent  of 
the  Sisters  of  Mercy,  Sister  Loyola,  Superior,  with  nine  other  sisters  resident 
there. 

St.  Mary's,  192  North  Main  street,  Norwich — Pastor,  Rev.  W^  A.  Keefe. 
The  Parochial  School  maintained  by  the  parish  is  in  charge  of  Sisters  of 
Mercy  from  the  Convent  of  Alary  Immaculate,  Sister  Anacletus,  Superior, 
eight  sisters  being  under  her  care.  , 

Sacred  Heart  Parish  at  Norwich  Town — Pastor,  Rev.  C.  W^  Erennati. 

Sacred  Heart  Parish  of  Taftville — Pastor,  Rev.  U.  O.  Bellerose.  The 
parish  has  a  Parochial  School  requiring  in  its  various  grades  and  depart- 
ments sixteen  teachers.  Sisters  of  Alercy ;  Mother  Geraldine,  Superior. 

St.  Joseph's  (Polish),  120  Cliff  street,  Norwich  City — Pastor,  Rev.  Ig- 
natius Maciejewski. 

St.  Patrick's  Parish  of  Mystic — Pastor,  Rev.  W  J.  Fitzgerald. 

Sacred  Heart  Parish  of  Groton — Pastor,  Rev.  William  Fox. 

Our  Lady  of  the  Rosary  Parish  of  Jewett  City— Pastor,  Rev.  John  Mc- 
Cabe. 

St.  Andrew's  Parish  of  Colchester — Pastor,  Rev.  Philip  J.  Mooney; 
assistant.  Rev.  Daniel  Sullivan. 

St.  Joseph's  Parish  of  Occum — Pastor,  Rev.  Frederick  Oessureault. 

St.  Marv^'s  Parish,  Stonington — Pastor,  Rev.  James  E.  O'Brien. 

Immaculate  Conception  Parish  of  Baltic — Pastor,  Rev.  William  T. 
O'Brien. 


J 


18  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


St.  Thomas's  Parish,  Voluntown- — Pastor,  Rev.  Ludovic  Paradis. 
St.  John's  Parish,  Uncasville — Pastor,  Rev.  John  F.  Ouinn. 

Legally,  St.  Mary's  Star  of  the  Sea  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  New 
London  is  St.  Patrick's  Corporation.  The  name  St.  Mary's  Star  of  the  Sea 
has  been  the  recognized  name  of  the  parish  for  half  a  century.  The  church 
had  its  inception  in  the  first  mass  ever  sung  in  the  city,  about  1S40,  by  Father 
Filton,  who  was  then  pastor  of  a  church  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts.  The 
first  service  was  held  in  a  building  on  Washington  street,  a  second  mass  being 
celebrated  by  the  reverend  father  in  a  building  at  the  corner  of  Bank  and 
Bleinman  streets.  These  services  created  an  interest  among  the  Catholics 
of  New  London,  and  soon  afterwards  St.  John's  parish  was  formed,  and  a 
chapel  was  erected  on  Jay  street.  Father  Filton  was  followed  by  Father 
Bradv,  who  in  1848  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  James  Gibson,  the  first  resident 
pastor.  He  remained  with  the  parish  two  years,  Rev.  Peter  Blenkinsop  be- 
coming pastor  in  1850;  Rev.  P.  Duffy  in  1851 ;  then  Rev.  F.  Stokes,  who  in 
October,  1852,  gave  way  to  Rev.  Thomas  Ryan,  under  whose  pastorate  a  new 
church,  St.  Patrick's,  was  erected  on  Truman  street,  below  Blackball  street. 
That  church  was  consecrated  May  4,  1855,  the  Jay  street  chapel  being  retained 
bv  the  parish  and  used  for  church  purposes.  Father  Ryan  remained  with 
St.  Patrick's  parish  until  1858,  and  then  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  P  A.  Gaynor, 
who  remained  until  1866.  During  that  period  he  organized  St.  John's  Literary 
Society,  and  started  it  on  its  long  and  useful  career.  In  1866  Rev.  B.  Tully 
became  pastor,  and  while  his  pastorate  was  a  short  one,  he  left  an  indelible 
impress  upon  the  history  of  the  parish  through  his  purchase  of  the  large  lot 
at  the  corner  of  Washington  and  Huntington  streets.  In  August,  1867,  Rev. 
P.  Grace,  D.D.,  became  pastor,  and  he,  too,  made  church  history  by  begin- 
ning the  erection  of  the  present  large  and  well  planned  structure  in  which 
the  congregation  worships  in  everincreasing  numbers.  Father  Grace  re- 
mained but  a  short  time,  being  followed  by  Rev.  E.  A.  Connor  as  pastor,  he 
having  as  assistant  Father  Furlong.  Father  Connor  continued  building 
operations,  and  also  organized  St.  Mary's  Benevolent  Society.  He  died  in 
1871,  Father  Furlong  having  temporary  charge  of  the  parish.  Rev.  M.  Tier- 
ney  became  pastor  in  May,  1872,  and  during  his  short  pastorate  organized  Star 
of  the  Sea  Total  Abstinence  Society.  In  January,  1874,  Rev.  P.  P.  Lalor  was 
made  pastor,  and  under  him  the  parish  became  St.  Mary's  Star  of  the  Sea, 
and  the  large  granite  structure,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  State,  was  completed 
and  dedicated  in  Ma)%  1876,  with  imposing  ceremonies.  Father  Lalor  was 
succeeded  in  1879  by  Rev.  Thomas  Broderick,  whose  pastorate  extended  over 
a  period  of  four  years.  Rev.  Thomas  Joynt  coming  to  the  parish  on  May  28, 
1883.  The  present  pastor,  Rev.  T.  D.  Crowley,  LL.D.,  succeeded  Father 
Joynt  as  pastor,  July  22,  1910.  The  congregation  is  a  large  one,  about  thirty- 
five  hundred  worshippers  attending  service  every  Sunday  morning,  five 
masses  being  celebrated,  the  children  having  a  special  mass  in  the  basement. 
The  Sunday  school  numbers  eight  hundred  scholars.  St.  Mary's  has  a  Con- 
vent of  S'Sters  of  Mercy,  v.'ho  are  in  charge  of  the  parochial  school,  of  which 
Rev.  John  J.  McGrath  is  principal.     The  school  course  covers  eight  grades ; 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  319 

the  graduatinji;  class  of  1922  numbering  seventy-two.  There  are  twelve 
teachers,  including  special  instructors  in  music,  art,  and  domestic  science. 

L'nder  Dr.  Crowley's  pastorate  the  church  tower  with  its  flaming  cross 
was  completed,  the  marble  altars  placed  in  the  church  and  the  interior  redeco- 
rated and  renewed. 

A  Norwich  newspaper  item  of  November  14,  1793,  recites:  "On  Friday 
evening  John  Thayer,  a  Catholic  missionary,  delivered  to  a  large  audience 
at  the  Rev.  Joseph  Strong's  meeting  house  (First  Congregational)  a  learned 
and  ingenious  discourse  in  which  he  undertook  to  prove  that  the  Catholic 
church  was  the  only  true  church  of  Christ."  This  missionary  priest  delivered 
another  doctrinal  sermon  the  Sunday  evening  following,  and  with  this  ex- 
cepton  there  is  no  mention  of  a  Roman  Catholic  service  until  1831,  when  a 
priest  from  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  then  the  nearest  Catholic  mission, 
began  occasional  visits.  The  first  mass  was  celebrated  in  the  town  about 
1840  by  Rev.  James  Filton,  who  about  the  same  time  visited  New  London. 
The  first  sacrament  recorded  as  administered  in  Norwich  was  the  baptism 
of  Catherine,  daughter  of  John  and  Eleanor  Connolly,  by  Father  Filton,  May 
15,  1836.  The  first  Catholic  marriage  in  Norwich  was  also  performed  by 
Father  Filton,  June  30,  1840,  when  he  united  John  Savage  and  Mary  Melvin. 

St.  Mary's  Mission  was  organized  and  a  chapel  begun  in  1843.  The 
church,  small,  but  sufficiently  large  to  accommodate  the  congregation,  was 
first  occupied  for  religious  services  March  17,  1845.  In  May  of  that  year, 
Rev.  John  Brady  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Norwich  Mission,  he  being 
followed  by  Rev.  William  Logan,  who  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Peter  Blenkin- 
sop,  who  remained  in  charge  of  Norwich  and  neighboring  missions  until 
September,  1851.  There  were  then  three  thousand  Catholics  residing  in 
Norwich  and  vicinity,  over  whom  Rev.  Daniel  Kelly  was  settled  as  pastor 
in  1851  ;  he  remained  until  August,  1866,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Rev. 
Peter  Kelly.  St.  Mary's  Chapel  had  been  enlarged  several  times  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  congregation,  and  under  Father  Kelly  a  beginning  was  made 
toward  building  the  much  needed  new  church,  he  buying  two  adjoining  lots 
on  Church  street.  On  March  17,  1867,  ground  was  broken  for  the  building, 
but  the  church  authorities  disapproved  the  location,  and  it  was  abandoned 
for  church  purposes.  Father  Kelly  was  succeeded  soon  afterward  by  Rev. 
Bernard  Tully,  who  a  few  months  later  was  followed  by  Rev.  Daniel  Mullen, 
who  became  pastor  January  20,  1868.  Father  Mullen,  after  careful  con- 
sideration, selected  a  plot  on  Broadway,  about  in  the  center  of  the  scattered 
parish,  which  extended  from  Yantic  on  the  north  to  Thamesville  on  the 
south  and  west,  and  to  Greeneville  and  part  of  Preston  on  the  east.  Ground 
was  broken  March  17,  1870,  and  a  new  church  was  erected  in  the  most  sub- 
stantial manner.  The  cornerstone  was  laid  July  13,  1873,  and  work  con- 
tinued until  the  fall  of  1877  under  the  direction  of  Father  Mullen,  who  died 
during  the  last  months  of  the  year,  leaving  the  church  uncompleted.  It 
was  estimated  that  up  to  that  time.  $200,000  had  been  spent  in  the  construc- 
tion of  walls,  roof,  and  tower  up  to  the  peak  of  the  roof  then  in  course  of 
completion. 


320 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


Rev.  P.  P.  Strahan  became  pastor  in  April,  1878,  and  at  once  assumed 
responsibility  for  the  completion  of  the  church,  and  so  energetically  did  he 
prosecute  the  work  that  it  was  possible  to  use  the  building  by  March  17, 
1879,  when  the  first  mass  was  celebrated.  On  September  28,  1879,  the  church 
was  dedicated,  Archbishop  Gibbons,  of  Baltimore,  later  Cardinal,  and  now 
gone  to  his  reward,  preaching  the  sermon.  A  fitting  honor  was  paid  Father 
Filton,  who  offered  up  the  first  mass  in  Norwich  thirty-six  years  before, 
and  who  built  the  first  Catholic  church  there,  in  making  his  presence  a  feature 
of  the  occasion.  This  great  church,  a  fine  specimen  of  ecclesiastical  archi- 
tecture, now  known  as  St.  Patrick's,  seats  nearly  two  thousand  people,  while 
the  basement,  reserved  for  the  children,  seats  one  thousand.  St.  Mary's 
Church  seats  twelve  hundred,  and  the  Church  of  the  Sacred  Heart  in  Nor- 
wich Town  seats  four  hundred. 

St.  Mary's  congregation  has  continued  to  worship  in  the  old  church  on 
Central  avenue,  but  a  handsome  church  edifice  built  of  Weymouth  granite 
is  nearing  completion,  Rev.  William  A.  Keefe  is  the  present  pastor. 

St.  Patrick's  parish  is  under  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  M.  May.  Both  parishes 
in  all  their  departments  are  in  a  prosperous  condition. 

Until  1872,  Taftville  Catholics  were  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  church 
at  Norwich,  but  in  October  of  that  year  they  were  placed  under  the  care  of 
the  church  at  Jewett  City,  mass  being  celebrated  in  the  town  hall.  In  1874, 
Rev.  John  Russell  succeeded  to  the  pastorate,  and  to  his  zeal  and  energy  the 
Catholic  church  that  crowns  the  Taftville  hills,  is  due.  That  church  was 
dedicated  April  18,  1878.  The  present  pastor  of  Sacred  Heart  parish  is  Rev. 
U.  O.  Bellerose. 

The  early  Catholics  of  Jewett  City  received  spiritual  consolation  from 
Father  McCabe,  of  Danielson,  a  missionary  priest  whose  district  then  included 
several  Connecticut  counties.  In  1861,  Rev.  James  Quin,  stationed  at  Moosup, 
was  given  jurisdiction  over  the  town  of  Griswold.  In  April.  1S66,  he  pur- 
chased the  church  of  the  Second  Congregational  Society.  Father  Quin  was 
succeeded  by  Rev.  Ferdinand  Bolenger,  who  in  turn  gave  way  to  Rev.  James 
B.  Reynolds,  who  became  the  first  resident  pastor  at  Jewett  City.  Father 
Reynolds,  of  delicate  constitution,  succumbed  to  the  hardships  of  his  large 
mission  field,  and  after  a  short  pastorate  died,  in  December,  1874.  In  Janu- 
ary following,  Rev.  John  Russell  became  pastor,  continuing  until  June,  1878. 
During  his  pastorate  the  church  was  greatly  enlarged  and  embellished.  In 
June,  1878,  Rev.  Thomas  P.  Joynt  became  pastor,  and  under  him  the  con- 
gregation erected  a  new  and  appropriate  parsonage.  The  present  pastor  is 
Rev.  John  McCabe. 

Prior  to  1850,  Rev.  James  Felton.  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  preached 
in  Pawcatuck  for  the  benefit  of  the  Catholics  there  residing.  There  was  no 
Catholic  church  there,  and  his  services  were  held  in  the  open  air.  He  was, 
however,  tendered  the  use  of  the  Union  meeting  house,  the  trustees  offering 
it  to  the  preacher  whenever  he  needed  it.  For  five  years  Father  Felton  con- 
tinued his  pastoral  ministrations,  Father  Daley  succeeding  him,  and  followed 
after  a  year's  service  by  Father  Duffy,  who  remained  two  years,  then  being 
succeeded  by  Rev.  Thomas  Drav,  who  remained  six  vears. 


RELIGION  IN  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  321 

St.  i^Iary's  Roman  Catholic  Church  at  Stonington  was  founded  in  1851, 
and  the  same  year  Rev.  P.  Duffy  built  a  church  there  by  subscriptions  from 
Catholics  in  Stonington  and  vicinity.  The  church  was  dedicated  in  1851  by 
Bishop  O'Reilly,  who  later  w^as  lost  at  sea  with  the  ship  "Pacific."  The  pres- 
ent pastor  of  St.  Mary's  Church  is  Rev.  James  E.  O'Brien. 

The  church  property  at  Mystic  Bridge  was  purchased  from  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  congregation  there  and  was  dedicated  as  St.  Patrick's  Church 
in  1870,  Rev.  P.  Lalor,  the  first  pastor.  The  present  pastor  is  Rev.  W.  J. 
Fitzgerald. 

IX. 
ADDITIONAL  CHURCH  HISTORY 

A  Universalist  Society  was  formed  in  New  London  in  the  year  1835,  and 
occasional  services  held,  but  no  church  was  erected  or  regular  minister 
established  until  1843,  when  a  brick  church  edifice  was  erected  on  Hunting- 
ton street,  which  was  dedicated  March  20,  1844,  Rev.  T.  J.  Greenwood  the 
first  pastor.  He  continued  over  the  church  four  years  and  then  resigned,  the 
church  being  sold  by  the  trustees  the  following  year,  the  Third  Baptist 
Church  purchasing  the  property.  In  August,  1849,  the  Universalist  Society 
bought  a  former  Episcopal  church  on  Main  street,  that  was  later  sold,  the 
society  then  worshipping  in  Allyn  Hall  until  the  erection  of  a  new  church, 
corner  of  Greene  and  Starr  streets,  which  in  1896  was  sold  to  Brainard  Lodge 
Mascnic  Corporation  and  is  used  as  a  Masonic  Temple.  The  present  beauti- 
ful church  on  Huntington  tsreet  is  known  as  All  Souls'  Universalist  Unitarian 
Church.  A  union  of  the  two  congregations,  Universalist  and  Unitarian,  was 
subsequently  effected.  The  pastor  of  All  Souls'  Church  is  \\'.  C.  Greene,  26 
Prospect  avenue. 

In  the  fall  of  1772,  John  Murray,  a  Universalist  preacher,  visited  Nor- 
wich, and  in  Dr.  Lord's  church  (First  Congregational)  preached  the  first 
sermon  ever  delivered  in  Nor^vich  in  open  advocacy  of  Universalism.  For 
several  years  thereafter,  John  Murray  paid  Norwich  annual  visits,  and  about 
1791  a  society  was  formed  and  Elhanan  Winchester,  an  eloquent  preacher  of 
the  Universalist  faith,  visited  Norwich  in  1794,  Rev.  John  Tyler,  of  the  Episco- 
pal church,  allowing  him,  as  he  had  Mr.  Murray,  to  preach  in  his  church. 
Near  the  close  of  1820  the  present  Universalist  Society  was  founded  under  the 
name,  "Society  of  L^nited  Christian  Friends  in  the  Towns  of  Norwich,  Pres- 
ton and  Groton.''  The  first  meeting  of  the  society  was  z.t  the  home  of  Paul 
Harvey,  in  Preston,  with  David  Tracy  as  moderator,  and  Gurdon  Bill  as 
clerk.  A  committee  was  chosen  to  draft  a  constitution,  and  later  at  Poque- 
tanoc  the  society  organized  by  the  election  of  the  proper  officers.  In  1821, 
under  the  preaching  of  Rev.  Charles  Hudson,  later  a  congressman  from 
IMassachusetts,  a  deep  interest  was  aroused  and  the  first  meeting  house  of 
the  society  erected.  That  church  was  dedicated  July  21,  1821,  Rev.  Edward 
Mitchell  preaching  the  dedicatory  sermon.  In  1836  the  name  was  changed 
to  the  Universalist  Society  in  Norwich,  and  the  present  organization  of  the 
church    began    February   6   of   that   year   with    eighteen   members.     A    new 


322  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

church  was  dedicated  in  1841,  and  on  November  15,  1848,  was  rededicated, 
having  been  enlarged.  The  present  Universalist  Society,  the  Church  of  the 
Good  Shepherd,  is  located  at  148  Broadway,  Rev.  George  H.  Welch,  pastor. 
The  present  church  edifice  was  erected  by  the  society  in  1910. 

Other  denominations  and  sects  maintain  congregations  in  the  county, 
and  all  sections  are  furnished  with  churches  and  Sunday  schools  in  which 
the  people  may  worship  according  to  their  own  belief.  There  are  two 
churches  dedicated  to  the  faith  as  taught  by  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  the  First 
Church  of  Christ  (Scientist)  at  New  London,  and  the  First  Church  of  Christ 
(Scientist)  at  Mystic.  A  society  of  the  same  faith  has  been  founded  in  Nor- 
wich with  reading  room  in  the  Tha}  er  building,  but  a  church  organization 
has  not  yet  been  effected.  The  church  at  New  London  is  located  at  the 
corner  of  Hempstead  and  Granite  streets,  the  reading  room  at  315  Plant 
building.  The  Mystic  church  maintains  a  reading  |room  at  No.  5  Grand 
street. 

The  churches  of  all  denominations  in  New  London  county  are  admir- 
able for  their  beauty,  size  and  furnishings,  while  the  small  country  churches 
show  by  their  neat  and  well  kept  condition  that  a  love  of  the  church  as 
handed  down  from  their  forefathers  in  this  and  other  lands,  exists  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XII 
COURTS  AND  LAWYERS 

"The  establishment  of  courts  and  judicial  tribunals  where  society  is  pro- 
tected in  all  its  civil  rights  under  the  sanction  of  law,  and  wrong  finds  a 
ready  redress  in  an  enlightened  and  prompt  administration  of  justice,  is  the 
first  necessity  of  every  civilized  community.  Without  such  protection  the 
forces  of  society  in  their  changeable  development,  even  under  the  teachings 
of  the  pulpit,  the  direction  of  the  press,  and  the  culture  of  the  schools,  are 
exposed  to  peril  and  disaster  from  the  turbulence  of  passion  and  conflicts  of 
interest;  and  hence  the  best  and  surest  security  that  even  the  press,  the 
school  and  the  pulpit  can  find  for  the  peaceful  performance  of  their  highest 
function,  is  when  protected  by  and  entrenched  behind  the  bulwarks  of  the 
law,  administered  by  a  pure,  independent  and  uncorrupted  judiciary.' 

The  New  London  County  Bar  has  from  its  beginning  numbered  among 
its  members  able  jurists,  talented  advocates  and  safe  counsellors.  Here  many 
have  lived,  tloi'irishcd  and  died,  while  others  still  are  upon  the  stage  of  action, 
who  have  been  prominent  in  the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  the  county 
and  figured  conspicuously  in  the  councils  of  State  and  Nation. 

The  first  county  court  was  held  in  New  London  county  June  6,  1666, 
Major  Mason  presiding;  John  Allyn,  assistant;  Thomas  Stanton  and  Obadiah 
Bruen,  commissioners.  A  court  was  also  held  September  20,  1666,  Major 
Mason,  Thomas  Stanton  and  Lieutenant  Pratt,  of  Saybrook,  occupying  the 
bench,  with  Obadiah  Bruen,  clerk.  In  June,  1667,  Daniel  Wetherell  was 
appointed  clerk  and  treasurer.  Major  Mason  was  the  only  magistrate  in  the 
county,  and  when  his  health  broke  and  he  was  seldom  able  to  attend  on 
court,  the  General  Court  after  1670  nominated  assistants  to  hold  the  court 
annually  in  New  London.  In  May,  1674,  Major  Palmes  was  invested  with 
the  authority  of  a  magistrate  for  New  London  county,  but  was  never  chosen 
an  assistant,  though  often  nominated  as  one. 

In  1676,  Cajjtain  John  Mason,  eldest  son  of  Major  Mason,  was  chosen 
assistant,  but  the  same  year  in  December  he  received  his  death  wound  in  the 
In-dian  fight.  The  next  assistant  from  New  London  county  was  Captain 
James  Fitch,  about  1680;  Samuel  Mason,  of  Stonington,  being  appointed  soon 
afterwards.  As  long  as  Major  Mason  lived  there  v.as  no  other  magistrate  in 
the  county  and  he  generally  held  his  courts  at  his  home  in  Norwich,  a  fact 
which  irritated  New  London,  and  in  October,  1669,  County  Court  Clerk 
Wetherell,  who  lived  in  New  London,  petitioned  the  General  Court  on  behalf 
of  the  commissioners  and  obtained  an  order  for  an  assistant  or  magistrate  to 
hold  a  court  at  New  London  at  stated  times.  After  Major  Mason's  death 
there  was  no  chief  magistrate  resident  within  the  county  bounds  until  May, 
1674,  when  the  records  show  the  appointment  already  noted:  "Major  Edward 
Palmes  is  invested  with  magisterial  power  throughout  New  London  county 
and  the  Narragansctt  country." 

The  first  Prerogative  Court  in  the  county  was  held  at  L'  nie,  April  13. 


324       •  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

1699,  the  next  at  New  London,  August  28  following,  Daniel  Wetherell,  judge. 
This  court  henceforward  relieved  the  county  court  from  the  onerous  burden 
of  the  probate  of  wills  and  the  settlement  of  estates.  The  justices  of  the 
peace  in  New  London  in  1700  were  Richard  Christophers  and  Nehemiah  Smith, 
the  former  judge  of  the  probate  court  in  1716. 

The  Supreme  Court  was  held  in  New  London  fcr  the  first  time  in  Sep- 
tember, 171 1,  the  court  being  held  in  the  meeting  house,  no  court  house  having 
then  been  erected.  Prior  to  171 1  the  Superior  Court  had  sat  at  New  Haven 
and  Hartford,  but  in  171 1  it  was  made  a  Circuit  Court,  each  county  of  the 
State  to  have  two  annual  sessions.  Richard  Christophers  was  one  of  the  assist- 
ant judges  and  Captain  John  Prentiss,  county  sheriff.  After  an  unsuccessful 
effort  in  1720  Norwich  successfully  petitioned  the  General  Court  that  the 
Supreme  Court  in  March  and  the  Superior  Court  in  November  might  hold 
their  sessions  for  New  London  county  in  that  city,  and  thus  Norwich  became 
a  half  county  seat  after  a  long  and  determined  fight  for  her  shaet  of  the 
courts. 

The  Connecticut  Superior  Court  is  deemed  to  be  open  for  business  for 
civil  business  only  at  New  London  on  the  third  Tuesday  in  September  and 
the  first  Tuesday  in  February,  and  for  criminal  business  only  on  the  first 
Tuesday  in  May.  At  Norv^-ich  the  cou»rt  opens  for  criminal  business  only  on 
the.  first  Tuesdays  in  January  and  September.  Sessions  for  civil  business 
only  open  at  Norwich  on  the  third  Tuesday  in  January,  the  fourth  Tuesday 
in  May  and  the  first  Tuesday  in  November. 

The  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  New  London  county  opens  at  Norwich 
on  the  first  Tuesdays  of  October  and  February;  at  New  London  on  the  first 
Tuesdays  of  August  and  April.  For  criminal  business  the  court  opens  at 
Norwich  on  the  second  Tuesdays  in  February,  March,  August  and  September; 
at  New  London  on  the  second  Tuesdays  in  April,  May,  June,  October,  No- 
vember, December  and  January. 

_  The  City  Court  of  New  London  has  civil  jurisdiction  only,  such  jurisdic- 
tion being  limited  as  to  amount  of  claim  to  $500;  return  days,  the  first  Tues- 
day of  each  month.  The  police  courts  of  New  London  and  Norwich  have 
criminal  jurisdiction  only,  fines  to  the  amount  of  $200  or  a  jail  sentence 
of  six  months,  or  both,  being  the  limit  of  penalty  that  may  be  imposed.  The 
town  courts  of  Griswold  and  Groton  have  civil  jurisdiction  in  cases  not  ex- 
ceeding $300,  and  in  criminal  cases  may  mpose  a  fine  not  exceeding  .$200,  a 
jail  sentence  of  six  months,  or  both.  Return  days  are  the  first  and  third  Mon- 
days of  each  month. 

Judges  of  probate  are  elected  on  the  Tuesday  after  the  first  Monday  in 
November  in  the  years  having  an  even  number.  The  term  of  office  is  two 
years,  beginning  the  first  Monday  in  January  following  their  election.  The 
following  embraces  the  names  of  the  districts  into  which  New  London  county 
is  divided,  and  the  towns  in  each  district  the  year  the  court  was  constituted, 
and  the  judges  elected  November  2,  1920: 

New  London  District — New  London  and  Waterford.  Constituted  at  the 
May  session  of  the  General  Court  held  in  1666,  as  a  countv  court.  Judge, 
Arlhur  E.  Calkins. 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  325 

Norwich  District — Norwich,  Franklin,  Griswold,  Lisbon,  Preston, 
Sprague,  Voluntown.  Constituted  in  October,  1748,  from  New  London.  Con- 
stituted in  October,  1748,  from  New  London.  Contains  the  records  of  Volun- 
town.   Judge,  Nelson  J.  Ayling. 

Bozrah  District — Yantic.  Constituted  from  Norwich,  June  3,  1843. 
Judge,  Wareham  W.  Bentley. 

Colchester  District — Constituted  May  29,  1832,  from  East  Haddam.  Con- 
tain East  Haddam  records  from  October  session  of  1741  to  May  29,  1832. 
Judge,  Harley  P.  Buell. 

East  Lyme  District — Niantic.  Constituted  June  2,  1843,  from  New  Lon- 
don.   Judge,  Austin  I.  Bush. 

Groton  District — Noank.  Constituted  May  25,  1839,  from  Stonington. 
Judge,  Arthur  P.  Anderson. 

Lebanon  District — Lebanon.  Constituted  June  2,  1826,  from  Windham. 
Judge,  George  E.  Briggs. 

Ledyard  District — Ledyard.  Constituted  June  6,  1837,  from  Stonington. 
Judge,  Samuel  E.  Holdridge. 

Lyme  District — Hadlyme,  Rural  Free  Delivery.  Constituted  July  5,  1869, 
from  Old  Lyme.    Judge,  William  Marvin. 

Montville  District — Constituted  June  27,  1851,  from  New  London.  Judge, 
Dan  D.  Home. 

North  Stonington  District — Constituted  June  4,  1835,  from  Stonington. 
Judge,  Charles  C.  Gray. 

Old  Lyme  District — Old  Lyme.  Name  changed  from  Lyme  to  Old  Lyme 
July  5,  1869.  Contains  the  records  of  Lyme  from  June  4,  1830,  to  July  24, 
1868.    Judge,  Robert  H.  Noble. 

Salem  District — Constituted  July  9,  1841,  from  Colchester  and  New  Lon- 
don.   Judge,  Henry  A.  Rogers. 

Stonington  District — Constituted  at  the  October  Session,  1766,  from  New 
London.    Judge,  Elias  B.  Hinckley. 

The  number  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  each  town  may  be  equal  to  one- 
half  the  number  of  jurors  to  which  such  town  is  by  law  entitled.  They  are 
elected  biennially  in  each  town  at  the  electors'  meeting  held  for  the  election 
of  State  officers  and  hold  office  from  and  after  the  first  Monday  succeeding 
their  election.  If  any  person  elected  fails  to  take  the  oath  of  office  before 
the  tenth  day  of  January  succeeding  his  election,  he  shall  be  deemed  to  have 
declined  the  office  and  an  election  to  fill  the  vacancy  may  be  held.  Under  this 
law  New  London  county  has  elected  174  justices  of  the  peace,  apportioned 
among  the  towns  of  the  county  as  follows: 

Bozrah    3  New  London 29 

Colchester  5  North   Stonington 3 

East  Lyme 5  Norwich     33 

FrankHn  4  Old  Lyme 7 

Griswold    6  Preston    2 

Groton    19  Salem    2 

Lebanon    3  Sprague   6 

Ledyard   3  Stonington    IS 

Lisbon    5  Voluntown    I 

Lyme    3  Waterf ord  12 

Montville   8                                                                                      

Before  the  Revolution,  the  commissions  of  notaries  public  in  the  colonies 
emanated  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  commission  of  Elisha 
Hall,  dated  August  30,  1721,  is  registered  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
State.     The  governor  was  first  authorized  in   1784  to  appoint  one  or  inore 


326  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

notaries  public  in  the  State  of  Connecticut  "as  the  commercial  interests  thereof 
may  render  it  necessary  or  convenient."  In  1838  notaries  were  empowered 
to  administer  oaths  and  acknowledgements  of  deeds.  In  1800  there  were 
fifteen  notaries  in  the  State;  in  1S12  there  were  thirty-two;  and  in  1827, 
sixty-four.     Now  there  are  literally  thousands. 

The  following  New  London  county  lawyers  have  risen  to  the  high  office 
of  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Connecticut:  Gurdon  Saltonstall, 
1711-12;  Jonathan  Trumbull,  1766-69;  Matthew  Griswold,  1769-84;  Samuel 
Huntington,  1784-85;  Henry  M.  Waite,  1854-57;  John  D.  Park,  1874-89. 

Of  these,  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Matthew  Griswold 
and  Samuel  Huntington  were  also  Governors  of  Connecticut ;  Jonathan  Trum- 
bull and  Samuel  Huntington  were  members  of  the  Continental  Congress ; 
Jonathan  Trumbull  was  a  United  States  Senator  from  Connecticut,  having 
previously  served  as  Congressman.  These  were  the  giants  of  the  New  Lon- 
don bar  who  rose  to  the  highest  eminence,  but  there  were  many,  many  others 
less  prominently  in  the  public  eye,  but  men  of  the  strongest  intellectual 
powers,  men  of  learning  and  culture,  who  played  well  their  part  in  the  great 
drama  of  life  and  reflected  credit  upon  their  ancient  and  honorable  profession. 
The  following  names  in  addition  to  those  already  mentioned  won  recognition 
and  fame  through  their  splendid  powers,  and  will  long  be  remembered: 

Asa  Spalding,  who  with  his  brother,  Judge  Luther  Spalding,  settled  in 
Norwich  in  1797,  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  181 1  was  counted  one  of  the 
richest  men  of  his  section.  He  was  without  patrimony  or  special  patronage, 
but  by  force  of  native  ability,  sound  judgment  and  integrity  built  up  an 
extensive  practice  and  filled  many  offices  of  trust.  Asa  Spalding,  Judge 
Luther  Spalding  and  Dr.  Rufus  Spalding  were  contemporaries  in  Norwich, 
and  there  they  were  buried,  all  in  the  same  burial  ground. 

Elisha  Hyde,  a  law}  er  of  good  repute  and  mayor  of  Norwich  fifteen  years, 
was  most  deeply  beloved  for  his  genial  spirit  and  great  benevolence.  He 
died  December  16,  1813,  aged  sixty-two  years. 

Joshua  Coit,  Harvard  1776,  practiced  in  New  London,  was  a  memter  of 
the  Legislatu*;e  several  times,  and  congressman  1793-98,  his  death  occurring 
September  5,  1798. 

Elvin  Perkins,  Yale  1786,  was  presidential  elector,  member  of  congress, 
judge  of  the  County  Court,  mayor  of  New  London  when  he  died,  September 
27,  1845- 

General  Elisha  Sterling,  born  in  Lyme,  Yale  1787,  and  Cyrus  Swan,  of 
Stonington,  men  of  a  high  order  of  talent,  practiced  outside  New  London 
county.  Major  Nathan  Peters,  a  Revolutionary  hero,  after  the  war  became 
a  learned  and  able  lawyer.    He  died  in  Norwich  in  February,  1824. 

Jeremiah  Gates  Brainard,  judge  of  the  County  Court  for  twenty-two  years, 
resigned  in  1829,  his  health  failing.  He  was  most  democratic,  affecting  little 
dignity  on  the  bench,  but  was  regarded  as  an  excellent  judge,  one  who  dis- 
patched business  promptly  and  won  public  confidence.  His  son,  William  E. 
Brainard,  was  for  a  long  time  a  leading  lawyer  of  New  London. 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  327 

Richard  Law,  Yale  1751,  practiced  in  New  London  and  attained  the 
highest  eminence.  He  was  prosecuting  judge  of  the  County  Court,  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Connecticut,  delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress 
1777-78,  and  1781-84,  L^nited  States  district  judge  after  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  a  friend  of  Washington,  long  mayor  of  New  London,  and  with 
Roger  Sherman  revised  the  Connecticut  Code.  He  died  while  United  States 
circuit  judge.  January  26,  1806.  He  was  a  son  of  Jonathan  Law,  a  colonial 
governor  of  Connecticut,  and  father  of  Lyman  Law,  Yale  1791,  speaker  of  the 
Connecticut  Legislature  and  member  of  Congress,  1811-1817.  He  studied  law 
under  his  honored  father,  and  practiced  in  New  London,  where  he  died, 
February  3,  1842. 

James  Stedman,  Yale  1801,  settled  in  Norwich  in  1806,  and  there  died 
May  18,  1856,  aged  seventy-six.  He  was  for  many  ^ears  clerk  of  the  County 
Court. 

George  Burbank  Ripley,  Yale  1822,  did  not  practice  his  profession  very 
long,  but  turned  to  the  soil.  He  filled  a  number  of  municipal  offices,  was 
judge  of  probate  a  number  of  years  between  1850  and  1858,  in  which  year 
he  died.  He  was  a  man  of  high  literary  and  scientific  attainments,  warm- 
hearted and  generous,  one  of  the  best  known  and  best  loved  men  in  his  county. 

Calvin  Goddard,  Dartmouth,  settled  in  Plainfield,  Connecticut,  in  1791 
and  vras  a  member  of  Congress,  1801-05.  He  settled  in  Norwich  in  1807,  and 
in  1815  became  a  member  of  the  Connecticut  Supreme  Court.  He  was  elected 
maycr  of  Norwich  and  held  that  office  seventeen  years.  He  died  May  2,  1842, 
aged  nearly  seventy-four. 

Jam.es  Lanman,  born  in  Norwich,  June  14,  1769,  son  of  Peter  and  Sarah 
(Coit)  Lanman.  v/as  graduated  from  Yale,  cla.ss  of  1788,  studied  law,  and  rose 
to  prominence.  He  was  United  States  Senator  1819-1825,  judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Connecticut  three  years,  and  mayor  of  Norwich,  1831-34.  He 
died  August  7,  1841,  aged  seventy-tv.-o. 

Benjamin  Huntington,  LL.D.,  Yale  1761,  was  one  of  the  most  honored 
and  honorable  men  of  his  period.  He  was  State  Counsellor  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  member  of  the  Continental  Congress  in  1784,  member  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1789.  and  in  1793  was  appointed  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Connecticut.  He  died  in  Rome,  New  York,  October  16, 
1800,  and  was  buried  in  Norwich  by  the  side  of  his  wife,  who  was  a  daughter 
of  Colonel  Jabez  Huntington,  of  Windham. 

Roger  Griswold,  LL.D.,  settled  in  Norwich  when  first  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1783,  and  soon  acquVed  distinction  as  an  able  advocate  and  vigilant 
public  official.  He  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1795-1805,  and  in  1801  declined 
appointment  as  Secretary  of  War.  Later  he  was  a  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Connecticut,  lieutenant-governor,  and  in  May,  181 1,  was  elected 
governor,  receiving  the  honor  of  a  re-election  in  1812.  He  was  also  a  presi- 
dential elector.  Judge  Griswold  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Harvard 
University.    He  died  in  Norwich,  October  25.  1812,  aged  fifty  years. 

Joshua  Coit,  born  in  New  London,  October  7,  1758,  died  there  September 
5,  1798,  of  yellow  fever.     He  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  1776,  studied  law, 


328  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

and  practiced  in  Xev,-  London  until  his  death.     He  served  in  both  the  Con- 
necticut Legislature  and  the  National  Congress. 

Joseph  Williams,  of  Norwich,  Yale  1798,  was  admitted  to  the  New 
London  county  hze  in  1801  and  practiced  in  Norwich  about  thirty-three  years, 
retiring  from  practice  in  1833,  then  becoming  a  partner  in  the  Merchants' 
Bank.  After  seven  5'ears  of  banking  he  returned  to  the  office  practice  of 
law,  and  was  also  secretary-treasurer  of  the  Norwich  Fire  Insirance  Com- 
pany, 1819-55.  During  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  was  president  of  the 
Norwich  Savings  Society,  the  oldest  bank  in  Norwich.  For  twenty-five  suc- 
cessive years  Joseph  Williams  was  treasurer  of  New  London  county;  for 
thirty-nine  successive  years  he  was  a  justice  of  the  peace ;  for  twenty-two 
years  he  was  an  alderman  of  Norwich,  and  a  member  of  the  Legislature  four 
terms.  He  was  a  director  of  the  Norwich  Bank  over  thirty-five  years,  and 
president  of  the  Norwich  Savings  Society  from  its  organization  in  1824  until 
his  own  death,  November  28,  1865,  aged  eighty-six,  being  at  the  time  of  his 
death  the  oldest  native  male  citizen  of  the  city. 

Jeremiah  Halsey  was  born  in  Stonington,  Connecticut,  in  1743,  died 
August  25,  1829,  and  is  buried  in  Preston,  Connecticut.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  New  London  county  bar  in  June,  1770,  and  began  practice  in  Preston, 
where  he  married  Esther  Park.  He  enlisted  shortly  after  the  battle  at  Lex- 
ington, was  at  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga,  and  on  May  i,  1775,  was  com- 
missioned a  lieutenant  by  Governor  Trumbull.  He  was  commissioned  a 
captain  of  the  armed  sloop  "Enterprise,"  June  21,  1775,  and  continued  in 
service  on  Lake  Champlain  until  December,  1775,  when  he  was  commissioned 
a  captain  in  the  Continental  army.  He  was  commissioned  lieutenant-colonel, 
February  29,  1780,  and  was  in  service  until  the  war  closed.  After  the  war  he 
returned  to  the  practice  of  law.  He  is  described  as  a  man  of  tall,  commanding 
figure,  of  sanguine  temperament,  persuasive  address,  combined  with  great 
force  and  energy  of  character. 

Marvin  Waite  was  born  in  Lyme,  December  16,  1746,  died  in  New  Lon- 
don, June  21,  1815.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1769,  and  the  same  year 
settled  in  New  London.  He  was  an  easj'  and  effective  speaker,  and  stood 
high  in  his  profession.  It  was  said  of  him  that  he  studied  men  as  carefully 
as  he  studied  books,  and  that  his  thorough  knowledge  of  human  nature  gave 
him  a  great  advantage  in  the  trial  of  jury  cases.  He  won  friends  easily,  his 
pleasing  personality  aiding  him  greatly  in  the  public  career  which  he  began 
very  early.  He  was  nineteen  times  elected  to  the  Legislature,  was  for  sev- 
eral years  judge  of  the  old  county  court  for  New  London  county,  was  a 
presidential  elector  in  1793,  and  voted  for  General  Washington.  When  Wash- 
ington retired,  Judge  Waite  became  a  disciple  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  was 
one  of  the  leaders  of  that  faith  in  Connecticut.  Throughout  his  entire  pro- 
fessional and  public  career  he  was  held  in  the  highest  esteem  as  a  man  of 
highest  integrity. 

Jirah  Isham,  born  in  Colchester,  Connecticut,  in  Ma3%  1778,  died  in  New 
London,  October  6,  1842.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Yale,  class  of  1797,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in   1800,  locatina:  in  New  London.     He  was  for  sevej'^al 


COL'RTS  AND  LAWYERS  329 

years  State's  attorney  for  New  London  county,  was  judge  of  probate  for  the 
New  London  district,  and  mayor  of  the  city.  He  stood  high  in  his  profession, 
was  fluent,  ardent  and  graceful  as  an  orator,  and  popular  socially.  During 
the  War  of  1812  he  was  commissioned  major  general  of  State  militia,  and  few 
a  time  was  in  command  of  troops  stationed  at  New  London. 

The  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Eastern  Connecticut  bar  for  many  years 
prior  to  his  death,  it  may  further  be  said  of  Henry  Strong  that  he  was  with- 
out a  superior  in  the  State.  He  was  the  youngest  son  of  Rev.  Joseph  and 
Mary  (Huntington)  Strong,  his  father"  an  LL.D.,  who  prepared  his  son  for 
college.  Henry  Huntington,  born  in  Norwich,  August  23,  1788,  entered  Yale 
at  the  age  of  fourteen  and  was  graduated  with  honors,  class  of  1806.  For  two 
years  after  graduation  he  taught  school  and  studied  law,  then  for  two  years 
was  a  tutor  in  Yale  and  a  law  student.  In  1810  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  New  Haven,  but  at  once  returned  to  No«rwich,  where  he  was  in  practice 
until  his  death,  November  12,  1852.  He  is  described  by  contemporaries  as 
"one  who  by  the  ability,  integrity,  fidelity  and  diligence  with  which  he  dis- 
charged his  various  duties,  imparted  dignity  and  respectability  to  the  pro- 
fession, and  caused  his  own  name  and  memory  to  be  held  in  honored  remem- 
brance." He  was  naturally  well  adapted  for  a  lawyer,  being  quick,  logical 
and  able  to  separate  the  false  from  the  true  in  evidence.  He  seized  upon  the 
strong  salient  points  of  a  case  and  presented  them  in  the  most  convincing 
manner.  He  scorned  all  trickery  or  deception,  and  met  his  opponents  in  a 
case  fairly.  As  a  public  speaker  he  was  earnest  and  at  times  impetuous.  He 
was  most  eloquent,  and  possessed  a  wonderful  power  of  language  which  he 
well  knew  how  to  command  at  the  bar  or  elsewhere  to  rebuke,  commend,  or 
in  vindication  of  the  right.  He  refused  all  offers  of  political  preferment  and 
they  were  many,  with  the  exception  of  a  seat  in  the  State  Senate.  Yale  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  in  1848,  he  having  declined 
a  law  professorship  in  Yale  Law  School.  He  was  a  consistent  Christian  and 
a  liberal  contributor  to  charity. 

Henry  Matson  Waite,  ancestor  of  Marvin  Waite,  of  previous  mention 
in  this  chapter,  was  born  at  Lyme,  Connecticut,  February  19,  1787,  and  there 
died  December  14,  1869,  full  of  years  and  honors.  He  fitted  for  college  at 
Bacon  Academy,  Colchester,  and  in  1806  entered  Yale  in  the  sophomore  class. 
He  was  graduated  with  high  standing  in  1809,  then  for  three  years  taught 
school  and  studied  law,  gaining  admission  to  the  New  London  county  bar  in 
1812.  He  finally  located  in  I^yme,  where  he  continued  in  active,  successful 
practice  until  his  elevation  to  the  Supreme  Court  bench  in  1834.  He  was  an 
able  lawyer,  learned  in  the  law,  and  a  very  successful  advocate.  His  strength 
lay  not  in  his  oratory,  however,  but  in  questions  of  law,  patient  research, 
discriminating  power  and  directness  of  argument.  In  1834  he  was  elected 
a  judge  of  the  Supreme  and  Superior  Courts  and  in  1854  was  made  Chief 
Justice,  an  office  he  held  until  reaching  the  constitutional  age  limit  (seventy 
}  ears)  in  February,  1857.  During  that  period  (1834-57)  Judge  Waite  enjoyed 
the  perfect  confidence,  respect  and  esteem  of  his  contemporaries  of  the  bench 
and  bar,  and  won  public  confidence  to  a  very  high  degree.     He  was  careful 


330  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

in  forming  his  legal  opinions,  but  firm  in  upholding  them.  Connecticut  re- 
ports show  that  he  was  not  infrequently  in  a  minority  and  sometimes  stood 
alone  in  his  opinions,  but  not  often  were  his  decisions  revised  by  the  ultimate 
judgment  of  the  bar.  Of  him  it  was  said:  "He  contributed  his  full  share  to 
the  character  of  a  court  whose  decisions  are  quoted  and  opinions  respected 
in  all  the  courts  of  the  United  States  and  the  highest  courts  of  England." 
Yale  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  in  1855.  Judge  Waite 
married  Maria  Selden,  daughter  of  Colonel  Richard  Selden,  of  Lyme,  and 
grandaughter  of  Colonel  Samuel  Selden,  an  officer  of  the  Revolution.  The 
eldest  son  of  that  marriage,  Morrison  R.  Waite,  became  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  Another  son,  George  P.  Waite,  was  a 
member  of  the  New  York  bar  at  his  death,  and  a  younger  son,  Richard  Waite, 
rose  to  eminence  at  the  Ohio  bar. 

The  career  of  Lafayette  S.  Foster  was  one  of  b»rilliancy  and  useful  lesson. 
He  was  of  early  Puritan  ancestry,  born  in  Franklin,  near  Norwich,  November 
22,  1806,  but  began  life  as  a  penniless  and  friendless  lad,  depending  upon  his 
own  energy  and  ability  for  everything.  He  secured  a  good  education  and 
after  graduation  from  Brown  L'niversity  studied  law,  located  in  Norwich,  and 
rose  to  eminence  in  his  profession.  In  1870  he  was  elected  to  the  Supreme 
Bench  of  Connecticut,  serving  until  1876,  when  he  was  automatically  retired 
through  reaching  the  age  limit.  After  his  retirement  from  the  bench  he 
resumed  law  practice  and  so  continued  until  his  death,  September  19,  1880. 

Flis  public  service  was  long  continued  and  valuable.  He  irepresented 
Norwich  six  terms  in  the  General  Assembly,  being  thrice  elected  speaker. 
He  was  mayor  two  years,  and  from  Alarch  4,  1855,  until  March  4,  1867,  was 
United  States  Senator  from  Connecticut,  elected  first  as  a  \\'hig  and  later  as 
a  Republican.  After  the  war,  Senator  Foster  favored  a  speedy  restoration 
of  the  Southern  States  to  their  constitutional  relations  w'ith  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment and  was  antagonistic  to  the  radical  leaders  of  the  Republican  party, 
a  fact  which  operated  against  his  election  for  a  third  term.  When  Andrew 
Johnson  succeeded  President  Lincoln,  Senator  Foster  became  Vice-President 
and  president  of  the  Senate,  holding  until  1867.  when  his  term  as  Senator 
expired.  In  1872  he  supported  the  Liberal  movement,  and  in  1875  ran  for 
Congress  on  a  Democratic  Liberal  ticket,  polling  a  large  vote,  although 
defeated.  He  supported  Hayes  in  1876,  and  the  same  year  declined  a  legis- 
lative nomination.  He  was  a  man  of  polished  manners,  and  was  a  delightful 
conversationalist,  well  read,  apt  in  quotation,  quick  at  repartee,  brimful  of 
genial  humor,  kindly  in  spirit ;  he  entertained  most  bountifully,  and  with  his 
gracious  wife  dispensed  a  generous  hospitality.  He  was  a  devout  member 
of  Park  Congregational  Church,  Norwich. 

Charles  Johnson  McCurdy,  son  of  a  lawyer  who  was  a  graduate  of  Yale 
and  grandson  of  a  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian  who  came  from  County  Antrim 
in  the  North  of  Ireland,  was  born  at  Lyme,  Connecticut,  December  7,  1797. 
He  was  graduated  from  Yale  with  high  honors  in  1817,  studied  law,  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1819,  began  practice  in  Lyme,  and  in  1856  was  appointed 
a  judge  of  the  Superior  Court.     In  1863  he  was  advanced  to  the  Supreme 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  331 

Bench,  holding  until  his  retirement  in  December,  1867,  through  the  opera- 
tions of  the  constitutional  age  limit.  After  his  retirement,  Judge  McCurdy 
delivered  courses  of  lectures  before  the  students  of  Yale  Law  School,  the 
University  conferring  upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  Judge  Mc- 
Curdy was  active  in  public  life,  serving  ten  te»rms  in  the  Connecticut  House 
of  Assembly  between  1827  and  1844,  and  in  three  of  those  years  was  speaker 
of  the  House.  In  1832  he  was  State  Senator,  and  in  1847  and  1848  was 
lieutenant-governor.  During  his  legislative  career  he  brought  about  that 
great  reform  in  Connecticut  law  by  which  interested  parties  to  a  lawsuit  may 
be  witnesses.  In  1851  he  represented  the  United  States  at  the  Austrian  Court, 
his  course  as  a  diplomat  being  highly  commended  by  other  countries  than  his 
own.  Judge  McCurdy  passed  the  evening  of  his  life  at  his  farm  in  Lyme, 
hallowed  by  memories  of  Washington  and  Lafayette,  both  of  whom  were 
there  entertained. 

Morrison  R.  Waite,  who  became  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  in  March,  1874,  was  born  in  Lyme,  Connecticut,  where  his 
ancestors  settled  a  century  before  the  Revolution.  He  entered  Yale  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  and  was  graduated  with  honors  in  1837  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one.  He  began  the  study  of  law  under  his  eminent  father.  Chief  Justice 
Henry  Matson  Waite,  but  went  West  before  finishing  his  studies,  becoming 
a  member  of  the  Ohio  bar.  His  career  as  lawyer  and  jurist  was  one  of  brilli- 
ancy and  success,  culminating  in  the  highest  honor  that  the  lawyer  can  attain. 
His  career  belongs  to  the  judicial  history  of  Ohio,  but  New  London  county 
gave  him  birth  and  here  that  career  had  its  beginning. 

John  Turner  Wait,  another  member  of  the  distinguished  W^ait  family  of 
New  London  county,  was  born  in  New  London,  August  27,  181 1.  He  pre- 
pared for  college  at  Bacon  Academy,  Colchester,  spent  two  years  at  Trinity 
College,  then  studied  law,  gaining  admission  to  the  New  London  county  bar 
in  1836.  He  was  State's  attorney,  1842 144,  and  from  1846  until  1854.  His 
law  practice  was  very  extensive,  and  for  many  years  no  important  case  was 
tried  in  the  New  London  county  courts  that  the  name  of  John  Turner  Wait 
did  not  appear  in  as  counsel.  He  was  widely  known  beyond  the  confines  of 
his  own  courts,  and  his  appearances  were  frequent  in  State  and  Federal  courts 
in  other  parts  of  the  State.  He  was  unquestionably  one  of  the  ablest  advocates 
in  his  State. 

Prior  to  the  Civil  War,  Mr.  Wait  acted  with  the  Democratic  organiza- 
tion, and  was  four  times  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  lieutenant-governor, 
each  year  running  ahead  of  his  ticket.  In  i860  he  supported  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  for  the  presidency,  but,  being  a  strong  Union  man,  he  thereafter 
acted  with  the  Republican  party.  In  1864  he  was  presidential  elector  at  large 
on  the  Lincoln-Johnson  ticket.  State  Senator  1865-66,  and  in  1867  member  of 
the  House  from  Na'wich,  and  unanimously  chosen  speaker  of  the  Forty-fifth, 
Forty-sixth  and  Forty-seventh  Congresses.  In  Congress,  Mr.  Wait  was  a 
powerful  advocate  for  a  protective  tarifif  and  for  the  interests  of  his  State. 
He  took  special  interest  in  pension  legislation,  in  the  marine  and  fishing 
interests   of   the   State,   the   improvement   of   Connecticut   harbors,   the   con- 


332  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

tinuation  and  improvement  of  the  New  London  Navy  Yard,  and  in  support 
of  some  of  these  delivered  elaborate  arguments  on  the  floor  of  the  House. 
He  gave  a  son  to  the  Union  cause,  Lieutenant  Marvin  Wait,  of  the  Eighth 
Regiment,  Connecticut  Volunteer  Infantry,  who  was  mortally  wounded  at 
the  battle  of  Antietam. 

Jeremiah  Halsey,  a  native  son  of  Preston,  New  London  county,  won  high 
distinction  at  the  bar  of  his  county,  being  contemporary  with  and  a  worthy 
associate  of  those  eminent  lawyers — Henry  Strong,  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  John 
Turner  Waite,  and  others  of  that  period.  He  was  a  paternal  grandson  of 
Colonel  Jeremiah  Halsey  of  Revolutionary  fame,  and  a  maternal  grandson 
of  Elder  William  Brewster,  of  the  "Mayflower."  Delicate  in  health,  he  was 
not  able  to  pursue  college  study,  and  finally  went  South  seeking  health  in 
the  milder  climate  of  Georgia.  At  Hawkinsville,  in  that  State,  he  began  the 
study  of  law,  and  was  there  admitted  to  the  bar,  April  23,  1845.  The  next 
fou»r  years  were  spent  in  further  legal  study,  and  travel  for  the  benefit  of  his 
health,  he  finally  in  1849,  ^t  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  opening  a  law  office  in 
Norwich  in  company  with  Samuel  C.  Morgan.  In  April,  1863,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  and  to  practice  at  the  bar  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  on  February  24,  1870.  He  practiced  with 
great  success  in  all  State  and  Federal  courts  of  the  district  and  State,  and 
Connecticut  reports  show  that  he  made  many  elaborate  and  effective  argu- 
ments before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  arguments  that  will  ever  be 
monuments  of  his  great  ability  and  learning  as  a  lawyer.  Professional,  not 
political  distinction,  was  his  high  ambition.  He  was  a  Whig  in  politics  and, 
later  a  Republican,  holding  several  positions  in  public  life,  but  never  seeking 
an  office  of  any  kind ;  yet  he  so  won  public  confidence  and  esteem  that  he  was 
chosen  without  an  effort  on  his  own  part  to  win  public  place.  He  was  sent 
to  the  Legislature  from  Norwich  in  1852,  1853,  1859  and  i860,  and  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor  in  1853  a  member  of  the  commission  charged  with 
the  erection  of  a  new  State  capitol  at  Hartford,  a  work  completed  in  1870.  In 
1853  he  was  elected  Norwich  city  attorney,  an  office  he  held  eighteen  years, 
then  resigning.  He  was  long  a  warden  and  vestryman  of  Christ  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  of  Norwich,  and  a  man  highly  respected. 

Henry  Howard  Starkweather,  like  Jeremiah  Halsey,  was  a  native  son  of 
Preston,  New  London  county.  He  studied  law  under  the  eminent  Lafayette 
S.  Foster,  and  in  1850,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
New  London  county  bar.  For  several  years  he  was  associated  in  practice 
with  Edmund  Perkins,  of  Norwich,  but  after  a  decade  of  successful  law  prac- 
tice he  entered  public  life,  giving  little  attention  to  his  profession  aftesr  1861, 
when  he  became  postmaster  of  Norwich.  A  Whig  in  politics,  he  was  in  at 
the  birth  of  the  Republican  party,  and  one  of  its  founders  in  eastern  Con- 
necticut. He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  I-egislature  in  1856.  was  a  delegate 
to  the  National  Republican  Conventions  of  i860  and  1868,  and  in  1867  was 
elected  to  Congress,  and  died  in  Washington  during  the  session.  A  man  of 
strong  common  sense,  infle.xibl}'  honest,  ever  governed  bj'  principle,  a  philan- 
thropist and  a  Christian  gentleman,  thecemembrance  of  his  virtues  is  fragrant. 


COURTS  AXD  LAWYERS  333 

John  Duane  Park,  LL.D..  the  last  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Errors  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  to  sit  from  New  London  county,  like  the 
two  men  whose  record  precedes  this  review,  was  born  in  the  town  of  Preston, 
New  London  county,  April  26,  1819,  son  of  Benjamin  Franklin  Park,  son  of 
Elisha  Park,  son  of  Rev.  Paul  Park,  son  of  Hezekiah  Park,  son  of  Robert 
Park,  son  of  Thomas  Park,  son  of  Sir  Robert  Park,  who  with  wife  and  three 
sons  came  from  England  in  1639  and  settled  in  Boston,  Massachusetts.  After 
completing  a  thorough  academical  education  he  began  the  study  of  law,  in 
1845  entering  the  office  of  the  eminent  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  and  in  February, 
1847,  ■^^■^s  admitted  to  the  New  London  county  bar.  He  began  practice  in 
Norwich  and  there  continued  a  private  practitioner  until  called  to  the  bench, 
he  winning  high  rank  as  a  learned  and  able  lawyer.  In  1854  he  was  elected 
judge  of  the  New  London  County  Court,  and  in  1855  represented  Norwich 
in  the  State  Legislature.  At  that  session  of  the  Legislature  thece  was  a 
radical  change  made  in  the  courts  of  the  State,  the  county  courts  being  abol- 
ished and  all  the  business  of  those  courts  transferred  to  the  Supreme  Courts. 
Four  new  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  were  elected  under  that  law,  of  whom 
John  Duane  Park  was  one.  He  served  under  that  election  as  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  until  1863,  when  he  was  elected  to  succeed  himself,  but  a 
year  later  was  called  higher  by  election  to  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Errors.  In  1872  he  was  re-elected  a  judge  of  that  court,  and  in  1873  "^^'^s 
elected  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  thus  reaching  the  highest  State 
honor  a  member  of  the  bar  can  attain.  He  served  with  ability  in  that  high 
office  until  1889.  In  1861  Judge  Park  received  the  degree  of  A.'M.  from  Yale, 
and  in  1878  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  the  same  institution. 

James  Albert  Hovey,  of  Norwich,  a  judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Con- 
necticut, was  of  Windham  county  birth,  son  of  Jonathan  and  Patience  (Sted- 
man)  Hovey.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Windham  county  bar  in  December, 
1838,  having  acted  as  clerk  of  the  Probate  Court  of  Hampton  district  while 
pursuing  his  legal  studies.  He  had  also  been  prominent  in  military  life,  serv- 
ing as  captain  of  the  local  company,  as  major  of  the  Fifth  Connecticut  Regi- 
ment of  militia,  and  for  three  years  as  its  colonel.  In  1841  he  settled  in 
Norwich,  New  London  county,  and  from  that  year  until  1849  Colonel  Hovey 
was  associated  in  practice  with  General  Cleveland,  under  the  firm  name  Cleve- 
land &  Hovey.  When  the  bankrupt  act  of  1841  went  into  effect,  he  was  ap- 
pointed general  assignee  in  bankruptcy  for  New  London  county,  an  office 
he  held  until  that  act  was  repealed,  Colonel  Hovey  settling  during  his  term 
about  one  hundred  and  sixt)^  bankrupt  estates.  In  1842  and  1843  he  was 
executive  secretary  under  Governor  Cleveland,  and  from  June,  1849,  until 
1854  he  was  senior  alderman  of  Norwich,  and  for  the  same  time  an  ex-officio 
judge  of  the  City  Court.  At  the  organization  of  the  Uncas  Bank  in  1852, 
he  was  elected  president  of  that  institution,  and  when  it  became  the  Uncas 
National  Bank  he  continued  president  until  1873,  when  he  declined  further 
ce-election,  having  held  the  office  twenty-one  years.  In  1850-51-52-53-54  he 
was  judge  of  the  New  London  County  Court,  and  in  1851-52  for  atout  six 
months  also  discharged  the  duties  of  judge  of  the  County  Court  of  Windham 


334  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

count  ,  owing  to  the  sickness  and  death  of  Judge  George  S.  Catlin.  His  rec- 
ord on  the  county  bench  was  remarkable,  but  one  of  his  judgments  being 
found  erroneous  when  reviewed  by  the  Superior  Court  and  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Errors.  From  1854  until  1876  he  was  in  the  private  practice  of 
his  profession  in  Norwich,  but  in  that  year  he  was  elevated  to  the  bench 
of  the  Superior  Court.  During  his  term  as  judge  of  that  court  he  was 
called  at  times  by  the  Chief  Justice  to  sit  upon  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Errors,  and  in  some  important  cases  prepared  and  delivered  the  opinion  of 
the  court;  these  opinions  may  be  found  in  Connecticut  Reports,  Volumes 
45,  46,  47.  In  addition  to  the  official  positions  enumerated.  Judge  Hovey 
represented  the  town  of  Norwich  in  the  Legislature  in  1851,  and  in  1870  was 
chosen  mayor  of  Norwich.  During  his  term  as  mayor  he  prepared  a  revision 
of  the  city  charter  with  some  important  amendments,  which  were  later  ap- 
proved of  by  the  common  council,  the  County  Court,  the  voters,  and  General 
Assembly.  Judge  Hovey  was  for  more  than  three  decades  a  trustee  of  the 
Savings  Society  of  Norwich,  and  of  the  Chelsea  Savings  Bank  of  Norwich 
from  its  organization  in  1858. 

S.  T.  Holbrook,  a  law  student  under  Jeremiah  Halsey,  was  judge  of  the 
Norwich  probate  court,  1856-68,  judge  of  the  court  of  common  pleas  for 
New  London  county  in  1873,  and  in  1878  was  again  elected  judge  of  the 
Norwich  district  probate  court.  He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature 
from  Norwich  in  1873  and  again  in  1876. 

George  Pratt,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  studied  law  under  the  eminent  John 
Turner  Wait  of  Norwich,  and  in  1859  was  admitted  to  the  New  London  county 
bar,  and  opened  an  office  in  Norwich,  where  he  practiced  with  great  success 
until  his  early  death,  June  4,  1875.  He  was  four  times  elected  to  the  State 
Legislature,  once  from  Salem  and  three  times  firom  Norwich.  He  ranked  high 
in  his  profession,  adding  to  a  well-disciplined  mind  legal  knowledge,  sound 
judgment,  tact  and  discrimination.  As  an  advocate  he  was  earnest,  direct 
and  forcible,  commanding  from  the  court  close  attention  when  arguing. 

George  Willard  Goddard,  son  of  Major  Hezekiah  Goddard,  son  of  Daniel 
Goddard,  a  lineal  descendant  of  William  Goddard  who  came  to  New  England 
m  1665,  was  born  in  New  London,  July  3,  1824.  He  was  graduated  from  Yale, 
class  of  1845,  2"d  was  admitted  to  the  New  London  county  bar  in  1848,  hav- 
ing pursued  law  study  under  Walker  &  Bristol,  of  New  London,  in  Yale  Law 
School,  and  under  the  eminent  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  of  Norwich.  Mr.  Goddard 
began  the  practice  of  law  in  New  London  in  1848,  and  during  his  long  cajreer 
filled  many  offices  of  trust,  professional  and  civic.  He  was  for  many  years  a 
member  of  the  examining  committee  of  the  New  London  county  bar;  was 
chosen  town  agent  in  1848;  clerk  of  the  probate  court  in  1855;  member  of  the 
Legislature  in  1856.  and  in  1859,  his  eyesight  failing,  he  practically  retired 
from  the  practice  of  his  profession.  From  July  4,  1864,  to  July  4,  1867,  he  was 
judge  of  the  probate  court  for  the  New  London  district,  and  from  1862  until 
1865  had  been  judge  of  the  New  London  police  and  city  court.  In  1871  he 
was  elected  alderman,  and  several  years  later  retired  to  the  Vauxhall  farm  in 
the  town  of  Waterford,  near  New  London. 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  335 

William  H.  Potter,  although  never  a  member  of  the  New  London  county 
bar,  was  for  a  number  of  }  ears  judge  of  the  probate  court  for  the  Groton  dis- 
trict, a  justice  of  the  peace,  and  so  eminent  a  citizen  that  he  does  not  inappro- 
priately appear  in  this  chapter.  He  was  a  son  of  Colonel  William  H.  Potter, 
grandson  of  George  Potter,  a  descendant  of  Vincent  Potter,  one  of  the  judges 
who  condemned  Charles  L  of  England  to  death.  William  H.  Potter  was  born 
at  Potter  Hill,  Rhode  Island,  August  26,  1816.  His  father  moved  to  Water- 
ford,  Connecticut,  in  1S20,  and  there  his  education  was  begun.  He  was  a 
graduate  of  Bacon  Academy,  valedictorian,  going  thence  to  Yale  in  1836,  but 
health  and  eyesight  failing,  he  could  not  finish,  but  later  received  from  Yale 
an  honorary  A.M.  After  leaving  college  he  began  teaching,  and  in  1840  be- 
came principal  of  Mystic  River  graded  school,  and  there  married  a  daughter 
of  Deacon  Elisha  Rathbun.  During  the  years  1851-55  Mr.  Potter  was  prin- 
cipal of  Brandon  Academy,  in  Mississippi,  and  on  his  return  again  became 
principal  of  the  Mystic  River  graded  school,  a  post  he  long  filled.  In  1865  he 
was  appointed  assistant  assessor  of  internal  revenue,  holding  until  1869,  when 
he  resigned,  having  been  elected  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly.  In  1872 
he  was  elected  State  Senator  from  the  seventh  district,  and  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  education  had  a  large  share  in  moulding  the  entire  educational 
code  of  the  State,  revising  every  law  pertaining  to  colleges,  academics,  com- 
mon and  normal  schools.  He  was  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  few  legis- 
lators always  at  their  post  when  possible,  and  kept  his  own  time,  refusing  pay 
for  any  time  absent,  a  practice  also  scrupulously  followed  by  his  father.  Colonel 
Henry  Potter,  while  a  member  of  the  Lower  House.  In  1872  Professor  Potter 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  a  trustee  of  the 
State  Normal  School.  After  four  years  of  service  he  was  re-elected  to  the 
same  office  by  a  Legislature  opposed  to  him  politically.  Dr.  Northrop,  secre- 
tary of  the  board,  bore  witness  to  Professor  Potter's  faithfulness  and  useful- 
ness during  the  eight  years  he  served  the  State  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Education.  In  1876  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  probate  court  for  the  Groton 
district,  an  office  to  which  he  was  repeatedly  re-elected.  He  was  also  a  justice 
of  the  peace  and  a  notary  public.  In  politics,  Judge  Potter  was  a  Whig,  later 
a  Republican.  He  became  a  member  of  the  church  in  1831,  was  for  more  than 
three  decades  a  deacon  of  Union  Baptist  Church  of  Mystic  River,  a  teacher 
in  Sunday  school,  for  twenty  years  clerk  of  Stonington  Union  Association, 
later  its  corresponding  secretary  ;  for  many  years  statistical  secretary  of  the 
Baptist  State  Convention,  later  a  member  of  its  board  of  managers;  for  sev- 
eral years  was  a  trustee  of  Connecticut  Literary  Institute  at  Suffield ;  and  in 
1881  took  an  active  part  in  the  Centennial  Celebration  at  Groton.  While 
acting  as  probate  judge  he  also  conducted  an  insurance  and  real  estate  busi- 
ness. Judge  Potter  wrote  many  historical  sketches  of  churches  and  com- 
munities, and  was  widely  known  as  a  peacemaker,  many  disputes  having  been 
brought  to  a  happy  settlement  through  his  counsel. 

Daniel  Chadwick  was  born  at  Lyme,  January  5,  1825,  and  was  graduated 
from  Yale,  class  of  1845,  and  studied  law  under  later  Chief  Justice  Henry  M. 
Wait,  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  and  later  Chief  Justice  Morrison  R.  Waite  in  Ohio. 


336  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

ilr.  Chadwick  was  admitted  to  the  Xew  London  county  bar  in  1847,  and 
practiced  law  at  L^^me  until  his  retirement,  with  the  exception  of  three  years, 
1854-55-56,  when  he  was  practicing  in  Baltimore.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
State  Senate  in  1858  and  1864;  member  of  the  Lower  House  in  1859;  State's 
attorney  for  New  London  county  for  fourteen  years ;  was  appointed  United 
States  attorney  for  New  London  county  in  November,  1880 ;  and  served  as 
governm.ent  director  of  the  L'nion  Pacific  Railway  Company  for  four  years 
beginning  in  April,  1877. 

George  Coit  Ripley,  youngest  of  the  sons  of  George  Burbank  Ripley,  was 
born  in  Norwich,  August  25,  1839.  He  was  graduated  from  Yale,  A.B.,  1862. 
and  at  once  entered  the  Union  army,  serving  until  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
with  the  Tenth  Regiment,  Connecticut  Volunteer  Infantry.  He  studied  law 
under  Jeremiah  Halsey,  and  in  October,  1867,  was  admitted  to  the  New  Lon- 
don bar.  He  began  practice  in  Norwich  and  there  continued  with  success 
until  his  retirement.  He  served  the  city  as  councilman,  clerk,  recorder  and 
attorney,  and  as  a  member  of  the  State  -Legislature. 

Contemporary  with  many  of  these  men  who  have  won  high  distinction 
at  the  bar  and  in  public  life  noted  in  these  pages,  and  yet  an  actor  on  the 
stage  from  which  they  have  passed,  is  Thomas  M.  Waller,  nestor  of  the  New 
London  county  bar,  of  which  he  has  been  a  member  more  than  six  decades; 
a  lawyer  of  high  repute,  a  citizen  of  public  spirit  and  patriotism ;  a  veteran 
of  the  Civil  War;  ex-speaker  of  the  Connecticut  House  of  Representatives; 
ex-mayor  of  New  London,  and  the  oldest  ofificer  of  the  State  of  Connecticut 
now  living,  having  been  Secretary  of  State  1870-71,  and  Governor  1883-1885. 

Thomas  J\L  Waller  was  born  in  New  York  State  in  1839,  son  of  Thomas 
C.  and  Mary  Armstrong.  He  was  doubly  orphaned  at  the  age  of  nine  years, 
and  was  later  adopted  by  Robert  T.  Waller,  of  Xew  London,  and  thus  became 
Thomas  M.  Waller.  He  was  educated  in  New  London  public  schools,  finish- 
ing with  graduation  from  Bartlett  high  school.  He  chose  the  profession  of 
law,  and  in  1861  was  admitted  to  practice  at  the  New  London  county  bar. 
He  hardly  began  professional  practice  in  New  London  before  he  enlisted  as 
a  private  in  Company  E,  Second  Regiment,  Connecticut  Volunteer  Infantry, 
and  with  that  command  went  to  the  front.  He  later  developed  serious  eye 
trouble  which  caused  his  discharge  from  the  army  for  disability.  From  the 
army  he  came  again  to  New  London,  which  has  ever  since  been  his  home. 
He  rose  rapidly  in  professional  rank,  and  until  his  virtual  retirement  com- 
manded a  large  and  influential  clientele.  He  is  yet  a  member  of  the  New 
London  county  bar.  From  1875  until  1883  he  was  State's  attorney  for  New 
London,  and  his  son,  Charles  B.  Waller,  is  the  present  judge  of  the  County 
Court  of  Common  Pleas. 

A  Democrat  in  politics,  Mr.  Waller  early  took  an  active  part  in  public 
affairs,  and  represented  New  London  in  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State 
in  1 867- 1 868- 1 872  and  1876,  serving  as  speaker  of  the  House  during  the  last 
session.  He  was  Secretary  of  State  in  1870-1871,  and  in  1883  was  elected 
governor  of  Connecticut.  President  Cleveland  appointed  him  consul-general 
at  London.  England,  a  post  he  ably  filled  until  1880.  then  resumed  law  prac- 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  337 

tice  in  New  London.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention 
of  1902,  serving  as  one  of  the  two  vice-presidents  of  that  body.  He  served 
New  London  as  mayor,  and  his  public  service  has  been  both  long  continued 
and  valuable. 

Walter  C.  Noyes  was  born  at  Lyme,  New  London  county,  August  8, 
1865,  son  of  Richard  and  Catherine  Chadwick  Noyes.  After  completing  his 
studies  at  Cornell  he  studied  law,  and  in  1886  was  admitted  to  the  New 
London  county  bar.  He  was  very  successful  as  a  practitioner,  and  rose  to  a 
high  plane  of  professional  success.  From  1895  until  1907  he  was  judge  of 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  New  London  county,  leaving  that  position 
for  service  as  judge  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  Connecticut  second 
circuit.  He  continued  as  circuit  judge  for  six  years,  then  resigned  and  returned 
to  private  practice,  locating  in  New  York  City.  Judge  Noyes  is  now  general 
counsel  for  the  Delaware  &  Hudson  Company,  but  conducts  a  general  law 
practice.  He  was  a  delegate  from  the  United  States  to  the  International 
Conference  on  Maritime  Law  held  in  Brussels  in  1909-1910,  and  is  an  au- 
thority in  that  branch  of  the  law.  He  is  the  author  of  "The  Law  of  Inter- 
Corporate  Relations,"  1902,  and  "American  Railroad  Rates,"  1905.  Judge 
Noyes  retains  his  home  in  Lyme,  his  birthplace;  his  city  residence,  405  Park 
avenue,  New  York  City. 

Frank  B.  Brandegee,  son  of  Augustus  and  Nancy  Christina  (Bosworth) 
Brandegee,  was  born  in  New  London,  July  8,  1864.  He  is  a  graduate  of 
Yale,  A.B.,  1885,  and  after  graduation,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father, 
he  studied  law  and  became  a  member  of  the  New  London  bar,  being  admitted 
in  1888.  He  located  in  New  London,  where  he  was  in  practice  for  many  years, 
being  ten  years  corporation  counsel  for  the  city  of  New  London.  An  ardent 
Republican,  he  early  entered  public  life.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Connecticut  House  of  Representatives  in  1888,  the  year  of  his  admission  to 
the  bar,  he  then  being  twenty-four  years  of  age.  He  was  again  elected  in 
1899,  and  at  the  following  session  of  the  House  was  chosen  speaker.  He  was 
a  delegate  to  the  National  Republican  Conventions  of  1888,  1892,  1900  and 
1904,  and  had  then  become  a  State  party  leader.  In  1902  he  was  elected  to 
fill  out  an  unexpired  term  in  the  Fifty-seventh  Congress  (1902-3)  and  was 
re-elected  to  the  Fifty-eighth  and  Fifty-ninth  Congresses,  but  did  not  serve 
his  last  term,  resigning  to  accept  election  as  United  States  Senator  from  Con- 
necticut to  fill  out  an  unexpired  term,  1905-1909.  At  the  close  of  his  term 
he  was  re-elected  to  serve  the  full  term  of  1909-1915;  was  again  chosen  to 
represent  his  State  for  the  term  1915-1921,  and  then  was  paid  the  honor  of  a 
fourth  term  in  the  Senate,  1921-1927.  He  has  held  many  important  com- 
mittee assignments,  and  is  one  of  the  men  of  the  Senate  who  exert  a  strong 
influence  in  the  work  of  that  body.  He  is  a  member  of  many  organizations, 
political  and  social;  his  clubs,  the  University,  of  New  York;  the  Metropolitan 
and  Chevy  Chase,  of  Washington;  the  Hartford,  of  Hartford;  the  Union 
League  and  Graduates,  of  New  Haven ;  the  Thames,  of  New  London ;  and  the 
Colonial,  of  Meridcn,  Connecticut.    His  home  is  in  New  London. 

Richard    Patrick    Freeman,    son    of    Richard    Patrick    and    Mary    Belle 

N.I..— 1-22 


338  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

(Magenis)  Freeman,  was  born  in  New  London,  April  24,  1869.  He  completed 
classical  study  with  graduation  from  Harvard,  A.B.,  1891,  then  entered  Yale 
Law  School,  whence  he  was  graduated  LL.B.,  class  of  1904.  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  New  London  county  bar  the  same  year,  opened  a  law  office  in 
New  London,  and  there  has  since  successfully  practiced  his  profession.  He 
was  regimental  sergeant-major  of  the  Third  Regiment,  Connecticut  Volun- 
teer Infantry,  during  the  war  with  Spain  in  1898,  and  from  1901-1908  was 
major  and  judge  advocate  of  the  Connecticut  National  Guard.  He  is  a  Re- 
publican, and  since  1915  has  represented  the  Second  Connecticut  district  in 
the  Lower  House  of  Congress.  Congressman  Freeman  is  a  member  of  the 
Masonic  order,  and  of  the  Congregational  church.  His  home  is  in  New 
London. 

Lucius  Brown,  son  of  Daniel  and  Mary  (Stanton)  Brown,  was  born  in 
the  town  of  Griswold,  New  London  count)',  May  5,  1846.  He  is  a  graduate 
of  Brown  University,  Ph.B.,  class  of  1866,  and  of  Albany  Law  School,  LL.B., 
1868.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  London  county  in  1868,  and  prac- 
ticed alone  in  Norwich  until  1878,  when  he  became  senior  of  the  firm  of  Brown 
&  Perkins.  He  was  judge  of  the  city  court  of  Norwich,  1894-1913 ;  member 
of  the  State  Senate,  1871,  1877,  1878,  1879,  and  chairman  of  the  committee 
on  judiciary  in  1S77  and  1878.  He  is  president  of  the  Norwich  Savings  So- 
ciety; a  trustee  of  Brown  University  since  1908;  is  a  trustee  of  Connecticut 
Literary  Institute ;  is  a  Republican  in  politics,  and  in  religious  faith  a  Baptist. 

Gardiner  Greene,  son  of  Gardiner  and  Mary  Ricketts  (Adams)  Greene, 
was  born  in  Norwich,  August  31,  1851.  He  is  a  graduate  of  Norwich  Free 
Academy,  1868;  Yale  University,  A.B..  1873;  Columbia  LTniversity  Law- 
School,  LL.B.,  1877.  He  practiced  law  in  Utica,  New  York,  1877-78,  then 
returned  to  Norwich,  was  admitted  to  the  New  London  county  bar  in  1878, 
and  from  that  year  until  1910  practiced  very  successfully  at  that  bar,  and  in 
all  State  and  Federal  courts  of  the  district,  rising  to  high  and  honorable  rank 
as  a  lawyer  of  learning  and  skill.  In  1910  he  was  elected  a  judge  of  the 
Superior  Court  of  Connecticut,  an  office  he  now  holds.  Judge  Greene  is  a 
Republican  in  politics,  and  in  1891  and  1895  represented  his  city  in  the  Con- 
necticut Legislature.  In  1902  he  was  a  member  of  a  commission  appointed 
to  revise  the  statutes  of  the  State,  and  has  always  been  the  devoted  public- 
spirited  citizen.  He  is  a  devout  Christian,  a  trustee  of  Berkeley  Divinity 
School,  Middletown,  Connecticut;  senior  warden  of  Christ  Church  parish, 
Norwich;  and  in  1907,  1910,  1913,  1916  and  1919  sat  as  a  lay  delegate  in  the 
General  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church.  He  is  also  a  trustee 
of  Norwich  Free  Academy,  a  member  of  the  American  Bar  Association  and 
the  Connecticut  Bar  Association.  His  college  fraternity  is  Delta  Kappa 
Epsilon;  his  Yale  societ'',  \\'olfs  Head.  , 

Edwin  Werter  Higgins,  son  of  \Verter  Chapin  and  Grace  Agnes  (Taintor) 
Higgins,  was  born  in  Clinton,  Connecticut,  July  2,  1874.  After  completing 
his  studies  at  Norwich  Free  Academy  he  entered  Yale  Law  School,  whence 
he  was  graduated  LL.B.,  class  of  1895.  In  that  year  he  was  admitted  to  the 
New  London  county  bar,  the  same  year  settled  in  Norwich,  and  has  there 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  339 

been  in  continuous  practice  until  the  present  (1922),  a  lawyer  of  high  standing 
and  a  citizen  whom  the  people  have  delighted  to  honor.  He  was  corporation 
counsel,  1901-02,  for  the  city  of  Norwich,  and  prosecuting  attorney  in  1905. 
His  business  is  large,  and  its  course  embraced  a  receivership  of  the  Hopkin  & 
Allen  Arms  Company.  He  is  a  member  of  the  American  and  Connecticut 
State  Bar  Associations,  and  highly  respected  as  a  lawyer  of  ability  and  skill. 
In  public  life  Mr.  Higgins  has  made  an  equally  creditable  record.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1899,  member  of  the  Republican  State 
Central  Committee,  1905-1906;  health  officer  for  New  London  count}',  1900- 
1905;  delegate  to  the  Republican  National  Conventions  in  1904  and  1916;  and 
when  Frank  Brandagee  resigned  his  seat  in  the  National  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives to  become  United  States  Senator  from  Connecticut,  Mr.  Higgins 
at  the  special  election  held  October  2,  1905,  to  choose  a  successor,  was  elected 
to  fill  out  the  unexpired  term.  When  that  term  expired  in  1907,  Mr.  Higgins 
succeeded  himself  and  sat  as  representative  from  the  Third  Connecticut  dis- 
trict for  eight  years  in  the  Fifty-ninth,  Sixtieth,  Sixty-first  and  Sixty-second 
Congresses,  1905-1913.  Mr.  Higgins  is  a  member  of  the  Sons  of  the  American 
Revolution;  Phi  Sigma  Kappa;  and  in  religious  faith  is  a  Congregationalist. 

Arthur  M.  Brown,  son  of  George  W.  and  Sarah  F.  (Young)  Brown,  was 
born  in  Jewett  City,  New  London  county,  September  24,  1877.  After  com- 
pleting public  school  study  at  Norwich  Free  Academy,  he  cruised  around  the 
world  for  two  years  as  quartermaster  on  a  private  yacht,  and  upon  his  return 
began  the  study  of  law.  In  1901  he  was  admitted  to  the  New  London  county 
bar,  and  has  since  practiced  his  profession  continuously  in  Norwich,  his  home, 
however,  in  Jewett  City.  Since  1902  Mr.  Brown  has  been  counsel  for  the 
borough  of  Jewett  City ;  since  1904,  counsel  for  the  town  of  Griswold  ;  since 
1905,  health  officer  for  the  county  of  New  London;  and  since  1901  has  been 
treasurer  of  New  London  county.  In  1901  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Lower  House  of  the  State  Legislature ;  in  1902  was  a  member  of  the  Con- 
necticut Constitutional  Convention,  and  in  1903  was  chosen  State  Senator. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  order,  a  Baptist  in  religious  faith,  a  Republi- 
can politically,  and  a  man  of  strong  ability  who  has  won  the  perfect  con- 
fidence of  the  public. 

Bryan  Francis  Mahan,  son  of  Andrew  and  Dora  (Dougherty)  Mahan,  was 
born  in  New  London,  May  i,  1856,  and  there  his  life  has  been  spent.  He  is 
a  graduate  of  Eartlett  High  School  and  of  Albany  Law  School,  LL.B.,  1881, 
and  the  same  year  was  admitted  to  the  New  London  county  bar.  He  opened 
law  offices  in  New  London,  and  there  has  continually  practiced  until  the 
present.  His  public  career  has  been  notable.  He  has  served  the  city  of  New 
London  as  prosecuting  attorney,  postmaster  and  mayor,  his  legislative  dis- 
trict as  member  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1882-83;  as  State  Senator  in  191 1- 
12;  and  in  1912  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  the  Second  Connecticut 
district,  serving  in  the  Sixty-third  Congress,  1913-1915.  He  accomplished  a 
great  deal  for  his  native  city  while  in  public  life,  the  appropration  of  $1,000,000 
for  the  development  of  New  London  harbor  being  secured  through  his  efforts. 
In  politics  Mr.  Mahan  is  a  Democrat. 


340 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


Abel  P.  Tanner,  son  of  Abel  and  Clarissa  (Waterous)  Tanner,  was  born 
in  Groton,  Connecticut,  July  7,  1850,  and  since  1875  has  been  a  member  of 
the  New  London  county  bar  and  in  active  practice  at  that  bar.  After  com- 
pleting public  school  study  with  graduation  from  high  school,  he  entered 
Brown  University,  when  he  was  graduated  A.B.,  1875.  He  then  pursued  a 
course  of  law  study,  and  in  1875  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  practiced  law 
in  Mystic,  1875-1882,  then  located  in  New  London,  his  present  home  and  seat 
of  practice.  He  was  corporation  counsel  in  1912-13,  and  in  1913  represented 
his  city  in  the  Connecticut  General  Assembly.  In  1906  Mr.  Tanner  was 
elected  president  of  the  New  London  Bar  Association,  and  through  successive 
re-elections  has  held  that  office  for  several  years.  He  is  a  Democrat  in  politics, 
and  has  frequently  been  the  nominee  of  his  party  for  high  office,  notably 
presidential  elector  in  1896,  and  for  Congress  in  1904. 

Charles  B.  Waller,  son  of  Thomas  M.  and  Charlotte  (Bishop)  Waller, 
was  born  in  New  London,  July  27,  1875,  and  there  resides,  and  like  his  father, 
the  ex-governor,  is  an  honored  member  of  the  New  London  county  bar.  He 
completed  his  classical  education  at  the  University  of  Minnesota,  then  pre- 
pared for  professional  life  at  Yale  Law  School,  receiving  his  LL.B.  with  the 
graduating  class  of  1896.  He  was  admitted  to  the  New  London  county  bar 
the  same  year  and  began  practice  in  New  London.  He  rose  rapidly  in  his 
profession  and  in  public  esteem,  being  elected  to  the  Connecticut  House  of 
Representatives  in  1905,  and  to  the  State  Senate  in  1907.  When  in  1907,  Wal- 
ter C.  Noyes  resigned  his  positon  as  judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for 
New  London  county  to  go  upon  the  bench  of  the  Superior  Court,  Mr.  Waller 
was  appointed  by  Governor  Woodruff  to  fill  out  the  unexpired  term.  He 
assumed  the  duties  of  his  office  September  28,  1907,  and  has  held  the  office 
fontinuously  until  the  present,  1922. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  members  of  the  New  London  county  bar 
who  now  (1922)  occupy  positions  of  trust  in  the  judicial  life  of  the  State  or 
county,  or  positions  of  importance  in  national  affairs : 

Frank  B.  Brandegee,  of  New  London,  United  States  Senator  from  Con- 
necticut, 1905-1927. 

Richard  P.  Freeman,  of  New  London,  Member  of  Congress  from  Second 
Congressional  district. 

Gardiner  Greene,  of  Norwich,  Judge  of  Superior  Court  of  Connecticut 
(term  expired  August  31,  1921). 

Christopher  L.  Avery,  of  Groton,  Judge  of  Superior  Court,  1920-1928. 

Allyn  L.  Brown,  of  Norwich,  Judge  of  Superior  Coourt.  August  31,  1921- 
1929. 

Hadlai  A.  Hull,  of  New  London,  State's  Attorney  for  New  London 
county. 

George  E.  Parsons,  of  Norwich,  Clerk  of  New  London  County  Courts. 

Harry  L.  Peterson,  of  Norwich,  Assistant  Clerk. 

Richard  W.  Mansfield,  of  New  London,  County  Probation  Ofiicer. 

Robert  McBurney,  Court  Messenger  at  Norwich. 

William  N.  Tubbs,  Court  Messenger  at  New  London  and  Librarian  of 
the  Law  Library. 

John  M.  Thayer  and  Gardiner  Greene,  of  Norwich,  State  Referees. 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS 


341 


Charles  B.  Waller,  of  New  London,  Judge  of  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
for  New  London  county;  term  expires  February  2,  1925. 

Lewis  Crandall,  of  Norwich,  Clerk  of  that  Court. 

Charles  S.  Whittlesey,  of  New  London.  Prosecuting  Attorney  of  same 
Court. 

S.  Victor  Price,  Judge  of  City  and  Police  Court  of  New  London. 

Lewis  Crandall,  Assistant  Judge. 

Daniel  M.  Cronin,  Prosecuting  Attorne3^ 

Clayton  B.  Smith,  Assistant  Prosecuting  Attorney. 

Clayton  B.  Smith,  Clerk  of  same  Court. 

John  H.  Barnes,  Judge. 

Henry  H.  Pettis,  Assistant  Judge. 

Lee  R.  Robbins,  Prosecuting  Attorney. 

Tetley  E.  Babcock,  Clerk  of  the  City  Court  of  Norwich. 

Arthur  M.  Brown,  Judge. 

Henry  H.  Burnham,  Prosecuting  Attorney  and  Clerk. 

John  T.  Barry,  Assistant  Prosecuting  Attorney  and  Clerk  of  Town  Court 
of  Griswold  (post  office,  Jewett  City). 

W'arren  B.  Burrows,  Clerk  and  Prosecuting  Attorney  of  town  of  Groton. 

Arthur  B.  Calkins,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  New  London  District. 

Nelson  J.  Ayling,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Norwich  District. 

Wareham  W^   Bentley,  Judge   of  Probate  Court  of  Bozrah  District. 

Harley  P.  Buell,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Colchester  District. 

Austin  L  Bush,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  East  Lyme  District. 

Arthur  P.  Anderson,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Groton  District. 

George  E.  Briggs,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Lebanon  District. 

Samuel  E.  Holdridge,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Ledyard  District. 

William  Marvin,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Lyme  District. 

Dana  D.  Home,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Montville  District. 

Charles  C.  Gray,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  North  Stonington  District. 

Robert  H.  Noble,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Old  Lyme  District. 

Henry  A.  Rogers,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Salem  District. 

Elias  B.  Hinckley,  Judge  of  Probate  Court  of  Stonington  District. 

George  Cutlej,  Member  of  Connecticut  House  of  Representatives. 

John  T.  Barry,  Member  of  House  of  Representatives  from  town  of 
Griswold. 


Attorneys   at   law, 
IY/2I)  : 

Arthur  P.  Anderson 
Guy  T.  Arms 
C.  L.  Avery 
Nathan  Belcher 
William  Belcher 
Max  Boyer 
Frank  B.  Brandegee 
Warren  B.  Burrows 
A.  B.  Calkins 
Charles  Chadwick 
Alfred  Coit 
William  T.  Connor 
Lewis  Crandall 
George  J.  Crocicchia 
Daniel  M.  Cronin 
Frank  Q.  Cronin 
Marion  R.  Davis 


members  of  the   New  London  county  bar   (Manual 


Thomas  F.  Dorsey 
Richard  P.  Freeman 
Charles  A.  Gallup 
John  G.  Geary 
Philip  Z.  Hankey 
Benjamin  H.  Hewitt 
Charles  E.  Hickey 
Perrv  J.  Hollandersky 
Charles  H.  Hull 
Arthur  T.  Keefe 
Frederick  P.  Latimer 
John  J.  Lawless 
Harry  Learned 
Morris  Lubchansky 
Bryan  F.  Mahan 
Frank  L.  McGuire 
George  C.  Morgan 


S.  Victor  Prince 
Charles  L.  Smiddy 
William  M.  Stark 
Clayton  B.  Smith 
John  F.  Sullivan 
Abel  P.  Tanner 
Thomas  E.  Tolland 
John  II.  Walker 
Charles  B.  Waller 
Thomas  M.  Waller 
Tracy  Waller 
Charles  B.Whittlesey— 
All  of  New  London. 

Frank  H.  Allen 
Wallace  S.  Allis 
Herman  Alofsin 


342 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


Nelson  J.  Ayling 
Telley  E.  Babcock 
Albert  J.  Bailey 
John  H.  Barnes 
Leslie  L.  Brewer 
Traver  Briscoe 
Allyn  L.  Brown 
Arthur  M.  Brown 
Lucius  Brown 
Henry  H.  Burnham 
Edward  T.  Burke 
Charles  W.  Cassidy 
Andrew  B.  Davies 
Jeremiah  J.  Desmond 
R.  M.  Douglass 
Frank  N.  Gardner 
Gardiner  Greene 
John  D.  Hall, 
Edwin  W.  Higgins 
John  P.  Huntington 
Charles  V.  James 
Edwin  C.  Johnson 
Thomas  J.  Kelly 
Arthur  F.  Libby 
Earl  E.  Mathewson 
Hibbard  E.  Norman 
W.  Tvle  Olcott 


George  E.  Parsons 
Edmund  W.  Perkins 
Harry  L.  Peterson 
Henry  H.  Pettis 
Virtume  P.  A.  Quinn 
Lee  Roy  Robbins 
Thomas  M.  Shields 
William  H.  Shields 
William  H.  Shields,  Jr. 
Chprles  L.  Stewart 
John  M.  Thayer  — All- 
ot Norwich. 

Erastus  S.  Day,  of  Col- 
chester 

Austin  L  Bush,  of  East 
Lyme 

Marion  R.  Davis,  of 
East  Lyme 

Arthur  M.  Brown,  of 
Jewett  City 

Henry  H.  Burnham,  of 
Jewett  City 

John  T.  Barry,  of  Jew- 
ett City 

Arthur  P.  Anderson,  of 
Noank 


Arthur  P.  Anderson,  of 
Mystic 

Albert  Denison.of  Mys- 
tic 

F.  H.  Hinckley,  of  Mys- 
tic 

Fred  P.  Latimer,  of 
Mystic 

George  R.  McKenna,  of 
Stonington 

Charles  A.  Gallup,  of 
Waterford  (post  of- 
fice, New  London). 

Harry  B.  Agard,  Henry 
W.  Rathbun,  both  re- 
siding in  Westerly, 
Rhode  Island. 

William  N.  Tubbs,  of 
New  London 

J.  Frank  Corey,  of  Nor- 
wich, and  Edith  M. 
Rathbun,  of  Stoning- 
ton, are  Commission- 
ers of  the  Superior 
Court,  but  are  not 
members  of  the  bar. 


This  list  is  from  the  Connecticut  Register  and  Manual  published  by  the 
State,  1921. 

The  pages  that  follow  are  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  Solomon  Lucas, 
Seneca  S.  Thresher,  Augustus  Brandagee,  and  Jeremiah  Halsey,  men  whom 
in  their  lifetime  the  members  of  the  New  London  county  bar  have  delighted 
to  honor.  The  chapter  finishes  with  an  eloquent  address  historical  in  char- 
acter. 

Solomon  Lucas — The  memorial  meeting  of  the  New  London  County  Bar 
in  honor  of  the  memory  of  Solomon  Lucas,  long  State's  attorney  for  New 
London  county,  was  held  in  Norwich,  November  9,  1906.  Addresses  were 
delivered  by  State's  Attorney  Hadlai  A.  Hull,  Abel  P.  Tanner,  Jeremiah  A. 
Desmond,  and  John  H.  Barnes.    Mr.  Tanner's  address  follows : 

A  conspicuous  member  of  this  bar  for  many  years,  a  leader  in  his  chosen 
profession,  has  reached  the  mystic  shore  that  all  the  dead  have  reached  and 
whence  it  is  said  no  voyager  returns.  Today  we  come  as  friends  to  speak 
his  eulogy,  to  tell  who  and  what  he  was,  and  what  he  did,  and  we  strive  to 
preserve  for  future  times  some  measure  of  his  fame.  In  choosing  his  niche 
in  memory  we  come  again  upon  the  names  of  illustrious  men  who  have  been 
lawyers  here — Pratt,  Foster,  Crump,  Lippitt,  Hovey,  Park,  Halsey,  Wait, 
I^randagee,  these  were  giants  in  our  profession  and  it  is  some  consolation  to 
reflect  that  in  distant  years  our  brother  will  be  reckoned  among  these  classic 
men. 

Solomon  Lucas  was  born  in  Norwich,  Connecticut,  of  English  parentage, 
in  1835.  At  that  time  Andrew  Jackson  was  President  of  the  United  States 
and  a  little  while  before  had  coined  the  famous:  "The  Union,  it  must  and 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  343 

shail  be  preserved."  Curiously  indeed,  when  twenty-six  years  later  our 
friend  came  to  this  bar  (April,  1861)  that  sentiment  had  become  the  slogan 
ot  the  North  in  the  momentous  issue  of  the  Civil  War.  Already  its  people 
had  been  startled  by  the  fall  of  Sumter,  when  for  the  first  time  in  this  Repub- 
lic they  saw  the  American  flag  lowered  in  surrender  to  foes  who  were  their 
own  countrymen.  In  this  exciting  period  Air.  Lucas  was  chosen  to  the  legis- 
lature of  this  State.  His  distinguished  townsman,  William  A.  Buckingham, 
was  governor,  and  though  differing  from  him  in  politics  he  helped  sustain 
the  loyal  purpose  of  that  splendid  man.  But  retiring  at  the  close  of  thd 
session  of  1863,  never  to  hold  political  office  again,  he  devoted  the  remainder 
of  his  life  to  the  practice  of  law. 

Mr.  Lucas  was  a  man  of  consummate  ability  and  worth.  A  child  of  plain 
New  England  people,  starting  in  life  poor  and  with  many  limitations,  he  rose 
by  his  own  exertions  to  the  highest  rank  in  his  profession — he  was  for  seven- 
teen years  State's  Attorney  for  this  county— and  he  finished  his  eminent  career 
with  credit  and  honor.  His  life  is  an  object  lesson  to  every  American  boy 
who  climbs  the  winding  ways  to  wealth  and  fame.  We  see  the  slender 
country  boy  working  on  the  farm  for  his  board  and  clothes ;  we  see  the 
student  in  the  law  school  at  Albany  laying  the  foundation  for  future  success; 
we  see  him  as  a  country  schoolmaster  teaching  others  the  way  of  knowledge, 
toiling  for  the  meagre  wages  of  fifty  years  ago ;  we  see  him  later  in  the 
office  of  Counsellor  Wait,  the  eager  student  exploring  the  sources  of  the 
common  law;  at  last  we  see  him  at  the  bar  practicing  in  all  the  courts  of 
the  state,  the  apt  and  finished  lawyer  of  his  time.  In  all  conditions  he  v.as  a 
candid,  sincere,  useful  man.  The  friend  of  social  order,  he  sought  in  modest 
ways  to  raise  the  standard  of  civic  duty.  He  was  an  accomplished  advocate, 
a  brilliant  cross  examiner,  in  argument  fluent,  forcible  and  convincing.  A 
careful  manager,  but  aggressive,  and  with  marvelous  endurance,  he  expressed 
his  cause  with  vigor,  and  once  engaged  he  never  left  the  field  until  the  last 
maneuvre  had  been  tried  and  the  last  stand  had  failed.  And  yet  as  a  counsel 
he  v.-as  usually  sound,  the  cautious  adviser  who  never  failed. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  call  him  a  fearless  prosecutor,  an  honest  and 
faithful  public  servant.  In  the  coming  years  we  will  cherish  a  grateful 
remembrance  of  his  fidelity  in  official  station  and  the  virtue  and  simplicity 
of  his  private  life.  He  did  not  claim  to  be  a  perfect  man.  Doubtless  he  had 
the  faults  and  foibles,  the  infirmities  which  are  common  to  our  race.  His 
continuity  of  purpose  and  the  desire  to  always  accomplish  what  he  undertook, 
may  have  sometimes  made  him  seem  severe :  but  to  those  who  knew  him  at 
home  and  in  the  social  circle  he  was  considerate,  he  was  aflfable,  he  was  kind. 
^\"e  shall  not  recall  unmoved  his  death  in  the  court  room  when  absent  from 
home  and  family  friends.  After  all  there  is  no  pathos  like  that  of  the 
unspoken  farewell  when  fate  overwhelms  us  at  the  bend  in  the  road.  But 
in  this  world  we  cannot  always  live.  Here  where  blossoms  wither  a^  last, 
the  oak  ceases  to  be  clothed  with  the  leaves  of  spring.  And  so  our  friend 
"after  life's  fitful  fever"  rests  unperturbed  in  the  serenity  of  death,  as  when 
some  craft  on  ocean  currents  tossed  for  many  days,  lies  in  the  calm  of  the 
last  harbor  with  sails  forever  furled. 

IMr.  Lucas  was  a  consistent,  active  member  of  the  Congregational 
church.  Imbued  in  life  with  the  faith  of  the  Christian  fathers,  he  carried 
through  all  the  years  the  solace  of  unfailing  hope.  He  was  conversant  with 
the  metaphor  of  the  ancients,  they  to  whom  each  day  was  a  symbol  of 
human  life — the  crimson  of  morning;  the  midday  of  splendor;  the  waning 
afternoon;  the  gold  of  sunset;  the  creeping  shadows,  and  at  last  the  darkness 
of  the  night — and  he  believed  that  somewhere  "night  wakes  up  morning 
for  the  endless  day." 

And  so  we,  sustained  by  the  same  hope,  will  look  to  meet  again  these 


344  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

classic  men,  in  brighter  spheres   where   strife  and  conflict   never  come  and 
friendship  never  fails. 

Seneca  S.  Thresher — On  July  2,  1920,  the  New  London  County  Bar  as- 
sembled at  Norwich  in  a  memorial  meeting  held  to  honor  one  of  the  county's 
old  and  able  attorneys,  Seneca  S.  Thresher,  Abel  S.  Tanner  delivering  the 
address,  which  follows  in  part: 

A  citizen  of  the  far  past,  Seneca  S.  Thresher,  in  life's  afternoon,  became 
a  solitary  figure  among  men.  He  belonged  to  a  generation  that  is  dead. 
Coming  to  Norwich  nearly  sixty  years  ago  to  begin  professional  life,  he 
was  longer  in  continuous  practice  than  any  other  lawyer  of  this  county,  so 
far  as  I  know.  The  nestor  of  this  bar,  holding  its  chairmanship  by  the 
privilege  of  age,  he  cherished  its  customs  and  traditions,  waged  its  legal 
contests  without  rancor,  and  retired  at  87,  with  his  mental  vigor  still  com- 
plete. I  call  to  mind  very  distinctlj'  my  first  acquaintance  with  him,  and 
with  equal  distinctness,  the  last  conversation  in  the  shadow  of  death.  These 
meetings — the  first  and  the  last — stand  out  in  memory  like  the  terminals 
of  a  long  journey,  and  forty-four  years  lie  between. 

I  first  knew  S.  S.  Thresher  as  a  fellow  delegate  in  a  political  state  con- 
vention in  the  city  of  Hartford,  in  1874.  He  was  chairman  or  secretary  of 
the  platform  committee  and  read  to  that  convention  the  resolutions  on  which 
Charles  R.  Ingersoll  was  chosen  governor  for  the  second  time.  Up  to  1872, 
Mr.  Thresher  was  a  Republican,  and  I  a  Democrat,  but  lately  come  of  age. 
Thereafter,  he,  too,  was  a  Democrat  to  the  end  of  his  life.  He  may  have 
had  ambition  and  coveted  public  office,  but  he  did  not  communicate  that  fact 
to  me,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  held  no  important  ofifice  beyond  that  of  justice 
of  the  peace  and  of  prosecuting  agent  somewhere  in  the  70's.  He  was, 
presumably,  content  to  illustrate  Pope's  famous  lines : 

"Ilonor  and  sham'e  from  no  condition  rise; 
Act  well  your  part,  there  all  the  honor  lies." 

And  then,  again,  he  may  have  pondered,  sometimes  with  regret,  the 
proverbial  ingratitude  of  republics. 

As  the  committee  have  informed  us,  Mr.  Thresher  was  a  child  of  Massa- 
chusetts, born  in  the  quaint  town  of  Swansea,  in  that  corner  of  the  State  where 
dwelt  so  many  of  Puritan  origin  in  the  early  colonial  days.  It  has  been 
facetiously  remarked  that  a  man  should  choose  his  ancestors  with  great  care. 
Mr.  Thresher's  ancestors  were  chosen  for  him  among  the  sturdy  pioneers. 
One  of  his  kindred  was  among  the  patentees  of  Rehoboth  300  years  ago, 
when  most  of  New  England  was  a  wilderness  where  the  Indian  chanted  his 
hymn  to  the  Great  Spirit,  and  the  white  man  answered,  sometimes,  the  call 
of  the  wild.  He  came  also  of  good  fighting  stock.  His  people  on  both  the 
paternal  and  maternal  side,  served  in  the  Colonial  wars  and  in  the  War  of  the 
Revolution,  and  one  of  them  received  the  thanks  of  Congress  for  bravery  in 
the  field. 

In  1832,  when  Mr.  Thresher  was  born,  this  country  was  favored  by 
exceptionally  great  men.  Calhoun  was  vice-president ;  Webster  and  Clay  were 
in  the  senate,  and  Andrew  Jackson  was  president  of  the  United  States. 
Many  of  our  presidents  have  been  noted  phrase-makers,  inventing  epigrams 
that  have  lived ;  but  no  saying  attained  such  wide  celebrity  as  that  coined 
by  Andrew  Jackson,  in  1832,  when  he  said:  "The  Union,  it  must  and  shall  be 
preserved."  In  1862,  when  Mr.  Thresher  was  admitted  to  this  bar,  that  phrase 
had  become  national.  It  had  swelled  to  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  heard 
above  the  roar  of  battle  when  a  million  men  from  the  North  resolved  that 
the  Republic  should  endure,  that  slavery  should  not  live,  and  that  the  Union 
should  not  die.     Mr.  Thresher  was  among  the  list  of  the  lawyers  of  this 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  345 

county  in  the  great  Civil  War  period.  Of  his  contemporaries  in  1862  only 
two  are  left :  ex-Consul  Day  of  Colchester,  and  former  Governor  Waller ; 
both  octogenarians  going  serenely  down  the  declivity  of  life.  The  rest  have 
from  this  mortal  forever  disappeared.  They  were  among  the  greatest  law- 
yers this  county  has  produced.  In  the  presence  of  these  men  Mr.  Thresher 
did  not,  himself,  seem  so  great  and.  doubtless,  by  some  he  was  overshadowed. 
But,  all  things  considered,  he  was  a  master  in  his  profession  and  deserves  to 
be  classed  with  the  great  lawyers  of  his  time. 

He  was  essentially  a  self-made  man.  Lacking  some  early  advantages, 
he,  nevertheless,  by  close  application,  attained  to  a  degree  of  learning  hardly 
surpassed  by  many  academically  trained.  He  was  conversant  with  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  common  law.  He  knew  its  sources,  its  possi- 
bilities and  its  limitations.  He  was  a  skillful  pleader  under  the  old  regime 
when  pleading  was  a  fine  art,  and  knew  the  value  of  concise  and  lucid  state- 
ment. He  knew,  likewise,  the  importance  of  careful  preparation — the  utility 
of  assembled  facts  and  forces  and  abundant  material.  He  knew  that  the 
law,  like  the  God  of  battles,  is  often  on  the  side  of  the  heaviest  battalions. 
He  was  a  competent  examiner  who  extracted  information  from  varied 
sources,  from  the  willing,  the  hesitant  and  the  unwilling.  In  argument  he  was 
ready  and  fluent,  often  with  a  voice,  both  quaint  and  droll,  that  revealed  his 
Puritan  lineage  and  traits  and  Yankee  derivation ;  but  he  was  forceful, 
impressive,  convincing,  sometimes  psychologic.  He  was  a  man  of  positive 
convictions  always  firmly  entertained  and  frankly  avowed  and  stoutly 
defended. 

In  his  strong  personality  there  were  three  main  characteristics :  The 
humorous,  the  stoical,  and  the  optimistic.  He  was  a  lover  of  comedy  and 
the  drolleries  of  the  stage.  A  reader  of  Mark  Twain,  whom  he  slightly 
resembled,  he  had  the  blessed  sense  of  humor  that  chloroforms  trouble  and 
makes  us  forget.  In  disaster  he  was  undaunted,  calm  and  evenpoised. 
Though  misfortune  came  to  him  as  it  comes  to  all,  he  met  it  unflinchingly, 
with  no  demonstration  of  weakness,  and  of  suffering  he  gave  no  outward 
sign.  Above  all  he  v.'as  optimistic.  He  had  the  rare  faculty  of  inspiring 
confidence  in  desperate  situations,  often  finding  loopholes  which  others  had 
missed.  And  so,  it  was  not  always  a  false  hope  he  raised.  In  litigation  he 
was  as  successful  as  the  average  trier.  He  early  cultivated  the  acquaintance 
of  hope,  and,  in  all  his  career,  hope  never  deserted  him.  It  abided  with  him 
in  afi'licticn  and  trouble.  It  was  with  him  in  sickness  and  health  and  in  joy 
and  sorrow.  It  sat  by  him  at  the  bed  of  death  and,  when  the  end  was 
reached,  he  and  hope  stepped  into  the  shadows,  hand  in  hand.  He  has  crossed 
the  boundary  line  of  the  great  unknown,  and  will  long  be  missed  from  this 
broken  circle. 

Augustus  Brandegee — Augustus  Brandegee,  youngest  of  the  three  sons 
of  John  and  Mary  Ann  (Deshon)  Brandegee,  was  born  in  New  London,  Con- 
necticut, July  12,  1828,  died  at  his  home  in  Pleasant  street,  in  the  city  of  his 
birth,  November  10,  1904.  John  Brandegee  was  a  cotton  broker  of  New  Or- 
leans, Louisiana,  when  war  broke  out  a  second  time  with  Great  Britain,  and 
fought  with  Jackson  at  that  famous  battle  of  New  Orleans  on  January  8,  1815. 
Mary  Ann  Deshon  was  of  Huguenot  ancestry,  a  daughter  of  Captain  Daniel 
Deshon,  who  in  1777  commanded  the  armed  vessel  "Old  Defense,"  which  was 
built  by  the  .State  of  Connecticut. 

After  attendance  at  Union  Academy,  New  London,  Augustus  Brandegee 
finished  preparing  at  Hopkins  Grammar  School,  New  Haven,  entered  Yale 
in   1845,  2nd  was  graduated  fourth  in  his  class  in   1849.     He  then  pursued 


346  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

professional  study  at  Yale  Law  School  for  one  year,  then  entered  the  law 
office  of  the  eminent  Andrew  C.  Lippitt,  and  after  admission  to  the  New 
London  coutny  bar  in  1851  became  Mr.  Lippitt's  partner.  They  dissolved 
partnership  in  1854,  when  Mr.  Brandegee  was  elected  to  represent  New  Lon- 
don in  the  Connecticut  Legislature. 

The  Whig  party  was  then  in  the  throes  of  dissolution  after  the  disastrous 
political  campaign  under  General  Scott,  and  the  proposed  repeal  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  had  stirred  the  moral  sense  of  the  nation  to  its  foundations. 
Mr.  Brandegee,  with  the  ardor  of  a  young  and  enthusiastic  nature,  threw  him- 
self into  the  anti-slavery  movement.  Although  the  youngest  member  of  the 
House,  he  soon  developed  talents  of  a  very  high  order  as  a  parliamentarian 
and  debater  and  became  its  leader.  He  was  appointed  by  Speaker  Foster, 
afterward  Senator,  a  member  of  the  judiciary  committee,  also  chairman  of 
the  select  committee  to  carry  through  the  "bill  for  the  defense  of  liberty,"  a 
measure  the  practical  effect  of  which  was  to  prevent  the  enforcement  of  the 
"fugitive  slave"  law  in  Connecticut.  He  was  also  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  Maine  Law,  and  as  such  carried  through  the  Assembly  the  first 
and  only  prohibitory  liquor  law  ever  passed  in  Connecticut.  Mr.  Brandegee 
was  largely  instrumental  in  the  election  at  that  session  of  Speaker  Foster 
and  Francis  Gillett  to  represent  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  Connecticut  in 
the  United  States  Senate. 

Returning  to  his  practice,  Mr.  Brandegee  was  elected  judge  of  the  city 
criminal  court  of  New  London.  In  the  enthusiastic  campaign  "for  free  speech, 
free  soil,  freedom  and  Fremont"  which  followed  the  anti-Nebraska  excite- 
ment, he  took  an  active  and  conspicuous  part.  He  made  speeches  in  the 
principal  towns  and  cities  of  Connecticut,  and  soon  became  noted  as  one  of 
the  most  popular  and  well  known  campaign  orators  of  his  party.  He  was 
chosen  as  one  of  the  electors  of  the  State  on  a  ticket  headed  by  ex-Governor 
Roger  S.  Baldwin,  and  with  his  colleagues  cast  the  electoral  vote  of  Con- 
necticut for  the  "Pathfinder"  and  first  presidential  candidate  of  the  Re- 
publican party — John  C.  Fremont. 

In  1858  Mr.  Brandegee  was  again  elected  to  represent  the  town  of  New 
London  in  the  Connecticut  House  of  Representatives,  and  in  1859  he  was  a 
third  time  chosen.  Although  selected  by  his  party  then  in  a  majority  as  their 
candidate  for  speaker,  he  was  obliged  to  decline  the  office  on  account  of  the 
death  of  his  father.  In  1861  he  vi'as  for  a  fourth  time  elected  to  the  House, 
and  was  honored  by  being  chosen  its  speaker.  This  was  the  first  "War" 
session  of  the  Connecticut  Legislature.  The  duties  of  a  presiding  officer, 
always  difficult  and  delicate,  were  largely  enhanced  by  the  excited  state  of 
feeling  existing  between  the  two  great  parties,  and  the  novel  requirements 
of  legislation  to  provide  Connecticut's  quota  of  men  and  means  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  rebellion.  The  duties  of  the  chair  were  so  acceptably  filled 
by  Speaker  Brandegee  that  at  the  close  of  the  session  he  was  presented  with 
a  service  of  silver  by  Flenry  C.  Deming,  the  leader  of  the  opposition,  in  the 
name  of  the  members  of  both  political  parties,  without  a  dissenting  vote. 

In  the  stirring  events  of  the  period  of  1861-65.  Jilr.  Brandegee  took  an 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  347 

active  part.  His  services  were  sought  all  over  the  State  in  addressing  patriotic 
meetings,  raising  troops,  delivering  flags  to  departing  regiments,  and  arousing 
public  sentiment.  In  1863  he  was  elected  to  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  as 
representative  from  the  Third  Connecticut  Congressional  District,  and  in  1865 
he  was  re-elected.  Although  the  youngest  member  of  the  body  in  which  he 
sat,  he  took  a  prominent  position,  and  was  selected  by  Speaker  Colfax  as  a 
member  of  the  committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  at  that  time,  next  to  Military, 
one  of  the  most  important  committees.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  com- 
mittee on  Naval  Accounts,  and  chairman  of  a  special  committee  on  a  post 
and  military  route  from  New  York  to  Washington. 

Mr.  Brandegee  continued  a  member  of  the  national  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives during  the  reconstruction  period,  acting  with  the  most  advanced 
wing  of  the  party,  and  was  trusted  and  respected  by  his  contemporaries, 
among  whom  were  Garfield,  Blaine,  Schenck,  Conkling,  Dawes,  Winter  Davis 
and  Thaddeus  Stevens.  He  was  admitted  to  frequent  and  friendly  inter- 
course with  President  Lincoln,  who  always  manifested  a  peculiar  interest  in 
Connecticut,  and  who  was  wont  to  speak  of  Governor  Buckingham,  its  execu- 
tive at  that  time,  as  the  "Brother  Jonathan"  upon  whom  he  leaned  as  did 
Washington  upon  Jonathan  Trumbull. 

Tn  1864  Mr.  Brandegee  was  a  member  of  the  Connecticut  delegation  to 
the  National  Republican  Convention  held  at  Baltimore  which  renominated 
President  Lincoln,  and  to  that  delegation  it  was  largely  due  that  Andrew 
Johnson  was  selected  instead  of  Hannibal  Hamlin  for  the  vice-presidency, 
Connecticut  being  the  first  State  to  withdraw  its  support  from  the  New 
England  candidate. 

In  1871,  against  his  earnest  protests,  Mr.  Brandegee  was  nominated  for 
the  office  of  mayor  of  the  city  of  New  London.  He  received  very  general 
support  and  was  elected,  but  resigned  after  holding  office  for  two  years,  being 
led  to  this  by  the  exacting  requirements  of  a  large  and  growing  legal  prac- 
tice. In  1880  he  was  chairman  of  the  Connecticut  delegation  to  the  National 
Republican  Convention  held  in  Chicago,  and  nominated  Senator  Washburn 
for  the  Presidenc}'.  His  nominating  speech  attracted  favorable  notice  in  the 
convention  as  well  as  throughout  the  country,  and  won  him  wide  reputation 
as  an  orator  and  party  leader.  In  1884  he  was  again  chairman  of  the  Con- 
necticut delegation  to  the  National  Republican  Convention,  also  held  in 
Chicago,  and  placed  in  nomination  General  Hawley  as  the  candidate  of  his 
State  for  the  Presidency. 

During  the  last  decade  of  life,  Mr.  Brandegee  gradually  retired  from  pub- 
lic affairs  and  devoted  himself  almost  exclusively  to  the  legal  affairs  of 
Brandegee,  Noyes  &  Brandegee.  a  leading  law  firm  of  New  London,  of  which 
he  had  been  a  member  since  1892.  He  was  urged  by  the  leaders  of  his  party 
to  accept  the  nomination  for  governor,  and  was  talked  of  as  an  available 
candidate  for  the  United  States  Senatorship,  but  he  steadfastly  declined  this 
and  all  other  public  offices  and  honors,  preferring  to  devote  his  entire  time 
and  energies  to  professional  work. 

Mr.   Brandegee   married   Christina   Bcsworth.     Their  daughter,  wife   of 


348  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Major  ]\I.  G.  Zalinski,  of  the  United  States  army,  and  their  son,  Frank  B. 
Brandegee,  survived  their  father.  The  son,  then  Congressman  from  the  Third 
Connecticut  District,  once  represented  by  his  father,  now  United  States 
Senator  from  Connecticut,  an  office  to  which  he  was  elected  a  year  after  the 
death  of  his  father. 

As  a  lawyer,  Augustus  Brandegee  ranked  as  one  of  the  foremost  in  his 
profession;  as  a  politician,  one  of  the  highest  ability  and  integrity;  and  as  a 
citizen,  one  of  the  most  respected  and  honored. 

The  following  memorial  was  the  tribute  paid  by  Judge  Walter  C.  Noyes 
to  his  friend  and  contemporary,  Augustus  Brandegee,  December  31,  1904,  at 
a  special  meeting  of  the  Superior  Court,  held  to  pay  respect  to  the  memory 
of  Mr.  Brandegee,  Judge  George  D.  Stanton  and  Colonel  Allen  Tenny,  of 
Norwich.    Judge  Noyes  said : 

Augustus  Brandegee,  a  leader  of  the  New  London  county  bar  for  half 
a  century,  is  dead.  During  all  that  time  he  reflected  honor  upon  this  bar. 
He  gave  to  its  members  an  example  for  emulation.  He  has  left  us  a  memory 
which  is  a  benediction.  We  strive  through  this  memorial  to  show  that  we 
appreciate  what  he  was  and  what  he  stood  for. 

He  was  a  learned  lawyer.  Coming  to  the  bar  filled  with  the  learning  of 
the  classics,  he  readily  absorbed  the  law  written  in  the  books,  and  yet  was 
always  more  than  the  book  lawyer.  He  never  failed  to  appreciate  that  the 
law  is  not  an  abstract  science,  but  a  rule  of  action  for  men.  Mercy  and  charity 
ever  came  to  him  as  the  hand  maidens  of  legal  principle.  He  approached 
the  trial  of  a  cause  with  diffidence.     He  participated  in  the  trial  as  a  master. 

He  was  a  brilliant  orator.  Convention,  legislature,  congress  and  court 
thrilled  with  his  eloquence.  In  manner  unexcelled  he  clothed  his  thoughts 
in  language  chaste  and  beautiful,  and  drove  his  words  deep  into  the  hearts 
of  his  hearers.  He  stood  for  high  ideals  through  all  his  public  life.  At  a 
time  when  the  Abolitionist  met  scorn  and  contumely,  he  labored  zealously 
to  free  the  slave.  A  member  of  Congress  through  the  war,  he  became  the 
trusted  friend  of  Lincoln,  and  rendered  signal  service  for  the  cause  of  the 
Union.  And  then  and  ever  after  he  put  aside  official  station  for  the  simple 
life. 

He  was  a  knightly  man — hypocrisy,  shame,  expedients,  pretensions — the 
whole  brood  of  lies  and  deceits — were  his  enemies.  He  fought  them  all  his 
days  and  when  the  end  came,  passed  over  God's  threshold  with  escutcheon 
unstained  and  with  plume  untarnished. 

Eulogies  were  also  delivered  by  Solomon  Lucas,  Frank  T.  Brown,  Hadlai 
A.  Hull,  Edwin  W.  Higgins,  and  Judge  Ralph  Wheeler,  of  the  Superior 
Court,  the  last  named  saying: 

It  was  not  mj"  good  fortune  to  become  acquainted  with  Augustus  Bran- 
degee prior  to  the  year  1868,  at  which  time  his  great  intellectual  and  moral 
forces  coupled  with  the  training  received  in  the  schools  and  at  his  Alma 
Mater,  Yale,  had  enabled  him  to  attain  a  position  of  eminence  in  political 
life  and  in  his  chosen  profession.  He  had  already  brought  many  honors 
home  to  his  native  city  and  state. 

At  the  date  mentioned  there  were  many  able  men  in  the  practice  of 
our  profession  in  New  London  county.  Among  them  were  Lippitt,  Wait, 
Hovey,  Foster  and  Halsey — men  learned  in  the  law,  and  some  of  whom  had 
devoted  their  lives  almost  exclusively  to  its  practice. 

Though  younger  than  most  of  them,  Mr.  Brandegee  had  already  easily 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  349 

taken  rank  among  the  first  as  a  lawyer.  He  was  a  great  lawyer,  advocate 
and  orator,  a  man  of  great  resources,  fidelity,  diligence,  force  and  efficiency 
in  every  situation,  and  under  all  circumstances.  He  loved  the  practice  of 
his  profession,  and  for  that  reason  resolutely  refused  to  accept  nominations 
to  high  political  offices  after  his  service  in  Congress.  He  preserved  his 
youthful  enthusiasm  late  in  life,  was  most  hearty  and  vivacious  and  enter- 
taining among  his  associates,  hut  would  sometimes  assume  a  hrusqueness  of 
manner  which  might  lead  to  some  misunderstanding  of  his  real  nature.  His 
personality  was  most  interesting.  He  had  a  great  heart  as  well  as  a  great 
intellect — was  helpful,  generous  and  magnanimous.  Fie  would  give  time 
and  effort,  and  do  much  for  others,  and  for  any  cause  which  interested  him. 
His  was  a  great  soul  and  through  what  experiences  and  by  what  strug- 
gles that  soul  reached  hope,  faith  and  rest,  may  not  be  known  to  us,  but 
we  may  be  sure  they  were  attained. 

Jeremiah  Halsey — At  a  memorial  meeting  held  to  honor  the  memory  of 
Jeremiah  Halsey,  one  of  the  giants  of  the  New  London  county  bar,  one  of 
the  speakers  was  Augustus  Brandegee,  another  "giant"  of  that  bar.  His 
address  follows : 

The  melancholy  privilege  of  age  assigns  to  me  the  duty  of  formally 
seconding  these  unanimous  resolutions  of  the  bar  expressing  the  sentiments 
of  the  professional  brethren  at  the  loss  of  their  great  leader.  The  pro- 
prieties of  the  occasion  do  not  permit  any  labored  or  extended  review  of 
his  life,  his  character  and  abilities,  but  it  is  fitting  that  while  still  stand- 
ing in  the  shadow  of  our  great  loss,  we  place  upon  the  imperishable  records 
of  the  court  this  last  feeble  tribute  of  our  respect,  admiration  and  love  for 
our  departed  brother. 

Jeremiah  Halsey  was  born  at  Preston,  Connecticut,  February  8,  1822. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1845.  He  practiced  continuously  in  all  the 
courts  of  this  State  for  just  half  a  century,  and  died  at  Washington,  D.  C, 
on  the  9th  of  February,  1896,  in  the  ripeness  of  his  fame,  and  the  full 
maturity  of  his  powers. 

He  was  a  great  lawyer ;  great  in  every  department  of  that  profession 
that  calls  for  the  exercise  of  the  highest  and  most  varied  powers  of  human 
intellect.  Whether  he  stood  before  the  learned  judge  or  a  jury  or  an  arbi- 
trator or  a  committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  or  other  tribunal  upon  whose 
decision  the  lives,  the  property,  and  the  rights  of  men  depend,  he  was  master 
of  himself,  his  subject  and  his  audience.  In  that  wonderful  system  founded 
upon  the  principles  of  everlasting  righteousness  wrought  out  by  the  wisdom 
of  ages  and  sanctioned  by  the  experience  of  mankind,  at  once  the  handmaid 
and  the  sure  defense  of  human  society  which  men  call  law,  he  was  easily 
"prjmis  inter  pares."  The  principles  of  this  system  he  hod  explored  to  their 
deepest  foundations.  His  comprehensive  and  philosophical  mind  had  sought 
out  their  reasons,  their  applications  and  their  limitations.  He  knew  how  and 
when  to  apply  them  in  their  rigor,  and  when  to  make  them  elastic  enough 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  an  ever  changing  and  ever  advancing  civilization. 

He  was  no  mere  "case  lawyer"  such  as  the  weaklings  of  our  profession, 
whose  sole  requirements  consists  of  a  catalogue  of  authorities  and  whose 
ill  digested  citations  only  serve  to  "make  confusion  more  confounded."  He 
was  not  one  of  those  who  darken  counsel  with  "profane  and  vain  babblings," 
"striving,"  as  saith  an  apostle,  "about  words  to  no  profit  but  to  the  subverting 
of  hearers."  He  rightly  divined  the  word  truth,  seeming  by  an  intuitive 
alchemy  to  know  how  to  separate  the  dross  from  the  pure  gold,  how  to  mar- 
shal, to  reinforce,  explain,  apply,  and  if  needs  be  to  reconcile,  the  authorities. 
He  loved  the  law — to  him  it  was  not  a  trade  for  hire,  nor  even  a  profession  for 
furnishing  one's  daily  bread,  it  was  rather  a  sacred  ministration.    He  looked 


350 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


upon  it  as  that  portion  of  the  scheme  of  eternal  justice  committed  to  man 
by  the  Supreme  Law  Giver  for  the  advancement  of  the  human  race ;  a  rule 
of  righteousness  to  be  administered  here,  as  at  once  a  preparation  and  a 
foretaste  of  the  more  perfect  law  of  the  Grand  Assize,  when  we  shall  no 
longer  "see  as  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  face  to  face."  A  judge  was  to  him 
a  representative  of  Him  of  whom  it  v/as  written:  "Justice  and  judgment  are 
the  habitation  of  His  throne."  A  court  room  was  a  sacred  temple,  and 
while  he  ministered  at  the  altar  he  had  no  part  or  lot  with  those  who  in  the 
outer  courts  "were  changers  of  money  and  sellers  of  doves." 

And  for  this  part  in  the  noblest  of  all  professions,  Providence  had  en- 
dowed him  with  great  and  peculiar  gifts  of  intellect,  temperament  and 
character.  And  these  fitted  into  and  worked  in  harmonious  action  with 
one  another  as  in  the  most  nicely  adjusted  piece  of  mechanism  ever  devised 
by  the  skill  of  man.  His  intellectual  equipment  vvas  of  the  highest  order.  He 
possessed  a  mind  strong,  vigorous  and  acute,  capable  of  close  and  continuous 
application,  and  of  comprehending  the  most  abstruse  and  complicated  prob- 
lems. Nothing  seemed  too  high,  nothing  too  deep,  nothing  too  hidden  or 
involved  as  to  baffle  or  obscure  that  penetrating  vision.  When  once  he  had 
grasped  the  underlying  principles  of  a  case,  he  follov^'ed  that  clue  through  all 
the  Daedalian  windings  and  turnings  of  the  labyrinth  to  its  logical  results  as 
though  guided  by  the  fabled  thread  of  Ariadne.  He  was  not  unmindful  of 
the  rule,  "Stare  decisis,"  but  he  looked  beyond  the  decision  to  the  reasons 
and  the  philosophy  of  it,  and  if  it  had  not  these  credentials  he  boldly  chal- 
lenged it  as  not  having  entered  by  authority  through  the  lawful  door  of  the 
fold,  but  as  a  thief  and  robber  that  had  climbed  up  some  other  way. 

To  this  clearness  of  vision  there  was  added  a  lucidity  of  statement 
which  has  never  been  surpassed  in  our  time  by  any  member  of  the  Connec- 
ticut bar.  What  he  saw  so  clearly,  he  had  the  faculty  of  so  expressing  that 
his  hearers  saw  it  as  clearly  as  he  did  himself.  This  is  a  rare  gift  and  if  it 
be  not  eloquence,  it  is  akin  to  it.  It  was  a  delight  in  some  tangled  and  com- 
plicated cause  rendered  still  more  tangled  and  complicated  by  the  efforts 
of  others  who  had  struggled  hopelessly  in  the  Scrbonian  bog,  to  listen  to  the 
pure  clean-cut  Anglo-Saxon  with  which  he  extricated  and  unfolded  the  real 
issue  and  stripped  it  from  all  incumbrances.  He  rarely  made  excursions 
outside  his  argument  by  way  of  illustration  into  general  literature,  but  at 
times  there  would  come  a  flash  of  humor  to  irradiate  and  illumine,  as  light- 
ning sometimes  comes  from  a  clear  sky  as  a  warning  of  the  approaching 
thunder. 

It  was  to  these  two  masterly  qualities — perspicacity  and  perspicuity — 
clearness  of  vision  and  clearness  of  utterance — more  than  all  others.  I  think, 
was  due  the  great  reputation  which  he  achieved  among  his  brethren  all 
over  the  State.  It  was  on  account  of  these  that  he  always  received  the 
undivided  attention  and  confidence  of  the  judges,  who  while  not  hankering 
after  the  dry  husks  of  the  law  for  their  daily  bread,  still,  it  may  be  presumed, 
prefer  argument  to  eloquence  and  demonstration  to  rhetoric. 

In  him  was  happily  united  to  these  qualities  a  temperament  which  acted 
in  harmony  and  gave  them  full  opportunity  for  exercise  and  development. 
He  was  calm,  serene,  self-poised  and  equable,  no  matter  how  important  the 
issue,  or  how  desperate  the  contest.  Whether  victory  or  defeat  hung 
trembling  in  the  balance — amid  the  smoke  and  confusion  of  the  battle, 
"amid  the  thunder  of  the  captains  and  the  shoutings" — like  the  great 
Marlborough,  he  was  imperturbable.  He  never  lost  his  selfposscssion.  He 
never  failed  to  employ  all  his  resources.  He  never  retreated  till  the  last 
man  was  brought  up.  and  the  last  gun  was  fired,  nor  tmtil  all  was  lost 
save  honor.  And  his  fight  was  always  in  the  open — a  fair  fight  and  no  favors. 
There  were  no  mines  or  countermines,  no  breaches  of  armistice,  no  firing 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  35^ 

upon  flags  of  truce — "Noblesse  oblige."  The  law  and  the  testimony,  truth  and 
honor,  right  and  justice,  these  and  nothing  more  and  nothing  less,  were  his 
watchwords. 

It  was  these  and  such  qualities  as  these  that  placed  him  in  the  front 
rank  of  our  profession  and  caused  his  name  to  become  a  household  word  in 
our  State  from  the  river  Bronx  to  the  Providence  Plantations.  But  he  was 
more  than  these — he  was  a  pure,  spotless,  honest,  simple,  unaffected,  truth- 
ful, just,  honorable,  whitc-souled,  gentleman.  There  was  never  one  so  con- 
spicuous who  bore  honors  more  unostentatiously.  There  was  never  one 
whose  life  had  been  spent  in  contest  and  in  combat,  more  free  from  "envy, 
hatred,  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness."  He  was  "not  slothful  in  business, 
but  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord."  "When  the  ear  heard  him  it  blessed 
him,  and  when  the  eye  saw  him  it  gave  witness  to  him." 

I  may  not  on  this  public  occasion  draw  aside  the  veil  which  covers  our 
personal  relations.  But  it  may  be  permitted  me  to  say  that  to  me  he  was 
more  than  a  Brother  in  Law.  For  forty  years  we  have  been  associated  in 
the  battles  of  the  bar,  always  together,  except  as  I  remember  on  only  two 
or  three  occasions.  He  was  my  inspirer,  my  guide,  my  counsellor  and  nv- 
friend.  "We  took  sweet  counsel  together  and  walked  in  the  courts  of  law 
as  friends.'  We  have  been  together  in'  many  a  hard  fought  battle,  have 
sympathized  in  many  a  defeat,  and  have  rejoiced  together  in  many  a  well 
earned  victory.  It  was  assigned  to  me  as  "junior"  to  lead  the  "light  brigade 
and  dash  at  the  enemy  with  sound  of  battle  and  slashing  broadsword" — 
but  I  knew  full  well,  whether  in  attack  or  retreat  that  behind  me  was  drawn 
up  the  heavy  artillery  and  that  my  great  commander  stood  there  as  fixed 
and  immovable  as  "the  Rock  of  Chickamauga." 

His  personal  appearance  harmonized  with  the  disposition  of  his  mind 
and  character.  He  was  tall  and  slim,  with  straight  black  hair,  a  pale  intel- 
lectual countenance,  the  eye  of  an  eagle,  and  that  prominent  nose  which  is 
the  unfailing  sign  of  indomitable  will  and  forceful  character.  His  manners 
though  mild  and  afifable,  were  decorous  and  dignified,  inviting  friendship 
while  repelling  undue  familarity.  There  was  an  indescribable  something  about 
his  fellow-citizens,  as  a  man  by  all  men  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  "His 
"that  Goodness  had  come  that  way."  One  knew  at  his  mere  presence — here 
is  a  man  to  be  trusted,  and  he  was  trusted — as  a  counsellor  by  his  clients,  as 
a  lawyer  by  his  brethren,  as  a  legislator  by  his  constituents,  as  a  neighbor  by 
his  fellow-citizens,  as  a  man  by  all  men  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  "His 
life  was  gentle  and  the  elements  so  mixed  in  him  that  Nature  might  stand 
up  to  all  the  world  and  say.  This  was  a  Man." 

Alas,  Alas!  The  inexorable  law  of  human  existence,  which  spares  not 
rich  or  poor,  young  or  old,  great  or  humble!  "He  hath  given  his  honors  to 
the  world  again,  his  blessed  part  to  heaven,  and  sleeps  in  peace."  He  has 
gone  "to  join  the  innumerable  caravan  which  ever  moves  to  that  mysterious 
realm  where  each  shall  take  his  chamber  in  the  silent  halls  of  death."  And 
so  for  a  season  we  bid  our  brother  "Farewell."  He  has  fought  a  good 
fight.  He  has  kept  the  faith.  He  has  walked  circumspectly  amid  the 
pitfalls  of  life.  He  has  rejoiced  not  in  iniquit}',  but  has  rejoiced  in  truth. 
He  was  first  pure  and  then  peaceable.  He  provided  things  honest  in  the 
sight  of  all  men.  He  recompensed  to  no  man  evil  for  evil.  He  overcame 
evil  with  good,  in  all  things  showing  himself  a  pattern  of  a  perfect  Christian 
gentleman. 

As  we  stood  by  his  open  grave  banked  with  flowers  and  watered  by 
tears,  as  in  the  presence  of  the  judges  who  honored  him  and  whom  he  loved, 
as  we  committed  "earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  and  dust  to  dust."  as  we 
cau?ht  the  solemn  refrain  of  the  church  he  loved  so  well:    "This  corruptible 


352  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

hath   put  on   incorruption,   and   this  mortal   hath   put   on   immortality,"   our 
hearts  responded  to  the  triumphant  pjean,  "Yea — even  so — it  is  well." 
"Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory." 

The  effect  of  Mr.  Brandegee's  beautiful  eulogy  upon  his  large  audience 
is  indescribable.  He  spoke  with  the  fullness  of  deep  feeling,  at  times  solemnly, 
gently,  then  again  like  a  trumpet,  making  every  word  a  live  thing,  his  voice 
filled  with  tears  as  he  spoke  of  his  personal  love  and  association,  and  to  a 
man  his  listeners  turned  away  their  faces  lest  the  gushing  of  their  own  tears 
be  seen.  When  the  speaker  finished,  John  T.  Wait,  after  a  moment  of  deep 
silence,  asked  Messrs.  Lucas  and  Wait,  who  were  to  speak,  if  they  wished  to 
add  their  testimony  to  that  of  Mr.  Brandegee,  they  could  only  shake  their 
heads  in  negation.  A  master  had  painted  the  portrait.  And  thus  the  memory 
of  Jeremiah  Halsey  was  honored. 

Abel  P.  Tanner,  of  New  London,  one  of  the  oldest  members  of  the  New 
London  county  bar,  was  chosen  to  deliver  the  historical  address  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  rededication  of  the  New  London  County  Court  House  in  the  city 
of  New  London,  September  i6,  1910.  IMr.  Tanner  deeply  interested  his  large 
audience,  and  his  address  is  so  full  of  value  that  it  is  here  preserved  in  full: 

The  committee  to  whose  unfailing  politeness  I  owe  this  invitation  to 
speak,  informed  me  not  very  long  ago  that  I  was  the  oldest  attorney  in  active 
practice  at  this  end  of  the  county.  If  correct  in  their  assupmtion,  it  will  ac- 
count this  afternoon  for  my  appearance  here  in  "history."  For  the  courtesy 
I  haA'e  received  from  the  commissioners  and  the  bar  and  the  public  as  well, 
I  am  extremely  grateful — more  than  I  can  tell.  But  with  that  acknowledg- 
ment, I  think  my  friends  are  mistaken,  both  as  to  my  age  in  the  profession 
and  my  place  in  the  line.  To  the  cold  indictment  of  silvered  age,  I  am  still 
loath  to  plead  guilty.  And  yet,  young  as  I  am,  or  imagine  I  am,  for  it  is  said 
a  man  is  no  older  than  he  feels,  I  have  begun  to  note  the  waning  afternoon ; 
already  I  perceive  that  the  day  is  far  spent,  and  though  the  future  may  have 
many  allurements,  that  the  years  of  my  activity  will  be  few.  Still  we  are  all 
hurrying  on  to  some  place  in  the  distance  where  the  line  is  mustered  out;  and 
from  its  last  bugle  note,  no  marchers  "come  back."  And  it  is  a  pretty  long 
line,  though  we  count  only  those  who  have  practiced  law  in  this  town — from 
John  Winthrop,  the  younger,  to  the  last  hopeful  accession — and  it  reaches 
far  back  into  the  past. 

Courts  of  justice  have  sat  in  this  our  city,  with  few  interruptions,  con- 
secutively, two  hundred  and  fifty  years — more  than  half  the  distance  back  to 
the  discovery  of  this  western  world — and  during  much  of  that  time  New 
London  was  the  only  count)'  seat.  In  1660,  the  General  Court,  which  was  the 
Legislature,  also  established  a  primitive  tribunal  here,  known  as  the  "Assist- 
ants" court,  composed  of  one  assistant  and  three  commissioners.  A  curious 
feature  of  it  was,  that  the  assistant  was  really  the  foreman,  and  the  commis- 
sioners did  the  assisting.  As  its  jurisdiction  was  limited  to  exactly  two 
pounds,  or  about  $10  of  our  money,  and  it  could  only  punish  for  trifling  mis- 
demeanors, it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  putting  four  judges  into  one 
court  session  was  using  a  good  deal  of  ammunition  on  pretty  small  game. 

The  first  judge  of  this  earliest  court  in  New  London  was  John  Tinker,  a 
liquor  dealer,  but,  like  our  distinguished  ex-mayor,  the  judge  was  popular  not 
only  in  New  London,  but  elsewhere  as  well. 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  353 

After  a  time,  the  Assistants  Court  by  process  of  evolution  became  the 
County  Court,  with  only  a  single  judge,  but  with  much  larger  judicial  powers ; 
and  it  existed  a  hundred  and  eighty-eight  years. 

The  county  itself  was  formed  in  1667,  with  Norwich  as  an  inconsequential 
member.  But  Norwich  waxed  and  grew.  It  grew  a  little  uncomfortable — at 
times,  discordant.  Occasionally  it  made  strenuous  efforts  to  get  out  of  the 
"Wigwam."  It  even  petitioned  the  General  Court  in  1674  for  liberty  to  attach 
itself  to  Hartford  county;  and,  would  you  believe  it,  it's  dissatisfaction  was 
mainly  with  the  way  justice  was  being  administered  here  in  New  London,  for 
the  rest  of  the  county;  and  Norwich,  in  its  complaint,  used  plain  language. 
I  will  read  you  a  sample :  "If  we  must  continue  as  we  now  are,  we  beseech 
you  to  improve  some  method  by  which  courts  of  justice  shall  be  so  managed 
that  peaceable  and  innocent  people  will  not  be  oppressed." 

But  though  Norwich  did  not  succeed  in  breaking  away  from  the  county, 
it  was  nevertheless  able  to  steal  a  march  on  New  London,  and  the  very  next 
year  secured  the  judge  of  the  County  Court.  After  that,  it  is  conceivable  that 
it  gave  New  London,  occasionally,  a  dose  of  its  own  medicine. 

Many  years  after — a  great  many  years— Norwich,  apparently  not  satis- 
fied with  having  the  judge  and  the  court,  began  to  reach  out  for  the  court 
house,  and  even  cast  covetous  eyes  at  the  jail.  And  there  is  a  tradition,  if  I 
may  call  it  such,  that  men  from  Norwich  came  down  here  once  and  undertook 
to  carry  off  both  these  institutions  bodily.  I  have  not  been  able  to  verify  this 
charge  of  grand  larceny  from  any  authentic  record ;  but  in  a  copy  of  the 
"People's  Advocate,'  a  newspaper  published  back  in  the  40's,  there  appears 
this  unique  paragraph: 

"A  Norwich  citizen  has  the  custom  house,  here,  in  view.  We  knew  Nor- 
wigians  had  been  trying  to  carry  off  the  court  house  and  the  jail,  but  we 
thought  the  custom  house  was  safe.  Well,  the  lighthouse  is  at  their  service 
whenever  they  conclude  that  we  have  light  enough  without  it." 

As  a  further  confirmation,  I  may  remark  that,  chancing  to  be  here  in 
1865  at  a  Fourth  of  July  celebration,  while  viewing  the  numerous  floats  in  line 
I  discovered  a  miniature  copy  of  the  old  court  house  on  which  were  these 
words:    "Too  old  to  go  to  Norwich." 

But  in  1843  ^  conspiracy  was  actually  formed  with  Stonington  to  abolish 
this  count}'  seat  and  center  all  the  courts  and  paraphernalia  at  Norwich.  And 
how  that  must  have  grieved  New  London,  to  think  that  Stonington  could  do 
this  thing — Stonington,  that  was  once  a  part  of  New  London,  in  the  days  when 
its  first  settler,  William  Chesebro,  was  a  member  of  our  town  government, 
and  Stonington  was  a  child  after  our  own  heart !  Naturally,  public  furor  was 
high.  In  Nev/  London  the  matter  was  a  party  issue  between  the  Whigs  and 
Democrats.  (At  that  time,  there  was  no  Republican  party,  though  there  were 
"Insurgents.")  The  Whigs  aft'ected  to  treat  the  subject  with  indifference, 
but  a  great  meeting  subsequently  assembled  in  this  building  and  one  of  its 
resolutions  was  as  follows: 

"\\'here:is  the-  people  of  Norwich — grasping^  de?poi!prs — seem  determined  to  concen- 
trnte  all  public  institutions  at  that  place,  to  the  great  injury  of  our  people,  therefore. 
Voted :  that  a  committ'ce  be  appointed  consisting  of  Coding-ton  Billings.  Charles  Doug- 
lass, and  Andrew  C.  Lippitt,  to  take  steps  to  keep  the  rourt  house  where  it  is,  with  all 
cur  rights  and  privileges." 

And  now  New  London  began  to  make  efforts  to  get  out  of  the  basket. 
A  petition  was  drafted,  praying  the  Legislature  to  create  a  new  county  in 
this  district,  with  New  London  as  the  big  township,  and  Norwich  left  out. 
Fortunatelv  the  General  Assembly  turned  down  both  propositions;  and  thus 
ended  this  "Tale  of  Two  Cities."  Happily  there  is  no  longer  a  conflict  between 
these  two  communities — nothing  but  tlie  friendliest  rivalry.     So  that,  when 

N.L.— 1-23 


354  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

New  London  generously  congratulates  Norwich  on  her  own  magnificent  court 
house,  the  presence  of  her  citizens  here  this  afternoon  is  evidence  that  Nor- 
wich, with  equal  courtesy,  returns  the  compliment. 

The  first  Superior  Court  in  this  State  was  created  in  171 1,  and  made  a 
Circuit  Court,  with  two  sessions  annually  in  each  county,  with  Richard  Chris- 
tophers, of  New  London,  as  one  of  its  judges.  And  here,  strange  to  sa\-,  there 
was  as  yet  no  court  house  owned  by  the  public  in  eastern  Connecticut.  When 
the  Superior  Court  sat  in  New  London,  it  was  given  accommodations  in  the 
old  meeting  house  of  the  First  Congregational  Church.  Even  that  was  later 
struck  by  lightning  and  nearly  torn  in  two.  The  first  court  house  erected 
for  use  in  this  county  was  located  in  New  London  in  1724,  while  Gurdon 
Saltonstall  was  governor.  It  stood  forty-three  years  on  a  corner  of  the  town 
square,  not  far  from  what  is  now  the  intersection  of  Hempstead  with  Granite 
street.  It  was  a  common,  unpretentious,  frame  building,  24x48,  without 
cupola  or  tower,  and  cost  the  munificent  sum  of  forty-eight  pounds — equiva- 
lent to  about  $250  of  our  money.  Manifestly,  the  cry  for  municipal  economy 
in  New  London  is  not  wholly  of  modern  origin.  The  building  was  paid  for, 
in  part,  by  the  sale  of  some  common  lands  which  the  county  owned  up  in 
"Mohegan." 

Not  far  from  the  court  house  stood  the  first  jail  ever  erected  in  this 
county;  and  close  to  the  jail,  on  another  part  of  the  Green,  was  the  First 
Congregational  meeting  house,  with  its  regulation  steeple,  destined  to  be  one 
of  the  watch  towers  of  the  Revolution,  wherein  (as  some  poet  has  said)  "Lib- 
erty its  lasting  vigil  keeps."  But  the  other  auxiliaries  of  defence,  such  as  the 
powder  magazine,  etc.,  were  stored  in  the  court  house,  and  the  whole  was  put 
in  charge  of  Mr.  Solomon  Coit,  a  man  of  consequence.  But  I  do  not  find  that 
he  received  any  other  compensation  for  his  janitorship  except  the  privilege 
of  having  his  Christian  name  attached  to  the  most  impassable  road  in  New 
l^ondon — Stony  Hill,  which  for  many  years  was  called  Solomon  street.  To 
some  it  suggested  a  relation  with  the  wisest  of  men ;  and  when  I  perceived 
this  trifling  with  a  great  name,  I  thought  of  the  line  from  Shakespeare:  "To 
what  base  uses  we  may  return." 

In  1776,  for  some  cause  which  is  not  quite  clear  to  us  now,  a  change  was 
made,  and  thence  until  1781  the  court  house  stood  on  the  Parade.  It  sat  a 
little  west  of  the  present  Neptune  building,  on  the  space  which  gets  its  name 
from  the  presence  of  a  fortress  there  in  former  years.  Close  to  the  water's 
edge  on  this  old  site,  stood  the  common  jail;  and  off  to  the  southwest,  but 
still  within  the  circumference  of  vision,  was  that  other  emblem  of  civilization, 
the  Gallows  Tree. 

What  this  court  house  was,  whether  a  newly  constructed  building  or 
one  transported  there  from  the  former  site,  we  do  not  know.  My  own  opinion 
is  that  it  was  moved  there — probably  in  sections.  Moving  wooden  buildings 
is  not  an  unknown  industry  in  New  London,  even  in  our  day;  and  the  colonists 
were  inured  to  habits  of  economy. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  this  court  house  was  consumed  by  fire  during 
Arnold's  invasion,  with  many  other  public  and  private  buildings,  in  that 
Valhalla  of  war  which  "spread  woe  and  desolation  throughout  this  region"; 
and  for  three  \ears  thereafter  the  courts  of  this  county  were  without  a  home. 
But  in  1784,  while  Richard  Law  was  mayor,  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
provide  a  new  building.  The  County  Court  naturally  selected  the  old  Parade 
site.  But  many  objected  that  it  would  some  time  be  wanted  for  commercial 
purposes ;  and  eventually  the  new  court  house  was  located  at  the  head  of  this 
street,  on  the  site  of  the  first  school  house  building  here,  with  a  little  addi- 
tioral  land  given  by  Joseph  Cnit.  And  for  fifty-five  years  this  bnildin^r  stood 
out  here,  in  what  would  now  be  the  middle  of  the  street  opposite:  though  at 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  355 

that  time  there  was  no  street  running  to  the  south,  and  Broad  street,  as  we 
know  it  now,  did  not  exist.  In  1839,  ^^  the  suggestion  of  Major  T.  W  Williams 
(new  streets  having  been  opened  all  around  n),  the  building  was  moved  on 
to  the  present  site,  on  land  procured  of  Air.  Williams,  and  here  it  has  remained 
seventv-one  years. 

This  court  house,  of  necessity,  has  a  judicial  as  well  as  a  materialistic 
and  sentimental  history;  but  the  noted  causes  that  have  been  heard  here,  and 
the  distinguished  lawyers  concerned  in  them,  in  forgotten  years,  would  make 
a  story  longer  than  I  can  tell,  or  you  would  patiently  hear.  The  argument 
of  Patrick  Henry  against  the  Tory,  Hook,  would  suffice  to  give  it  lasting 
fame. 

The  court  room,  as  originally  constructed,  had  a  gallery  on  three  sides  as 
an  extra  accommodation  to  the  public,  but  as  interest  in  legal  proceedings 
declined,  and  other  halls  were  built  for  public  use,  this  gallery  was  removed. 
The  present  alteration  has  somewhat  curtailed  the  space  railed  off  for  the 
general  public,  although  I  have  no  doubt  that  what  remains  will  be  ample, 
but  if  interest  in  court  proceedings  continues  to  diminish,  as  it  has  in  the 
past,  the  next  alteration  may  reduce  this  public  space  to  an  "Amen  corner." 
To  some  of  us  this  decay  of  judicial  sentiir:ent  is  not  a  I'lopeful  sign. 

But  though  interest  in  judicial  proceedings  mav  have  waned,  the  citi- 
zens of  New  London  have  never  lost  affection  for  the  building  itself.  Through 
all  vicissitudes  they  have  clung  to  it,  through  good  reports  and  evil,  with  a 
tenacity  that  at  times  has  seemed  pathetic.  I  confess  that  for  many  years 
I  did  not  know  the  reason  why.  There  was  nothing  classic  or  imposing  about 
the  old  building;  and  Miss  Calkins,  the  historian,  writing  as  early  as  1854, 
called  it  "commonplace,"  and  "generally  regarded  as  an  unsightly  blot,  dis- 
figuring the  neighborhood  where  it  stands."  But  continued  agitation  of  the 
subject  matter  has  developed  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  its  early  history  ; 
and  though  my  views  have  not  changed  as  to  a  more  enduring  edifice,  I  have 
come  to  understand  more  clearly  the  cause  of  this  devotion  to  an  ancient  relic. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  between  town  and  buildiii.g,  a  community  of 
interests.  The  erection  of  the  court  house  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
incorporation  of  the  city  ;  and  thus  starting  out  together,  they  have  kept  even 
pace  through  all  the  current  years  and  shared  a  cominr-n  destinv.  And,  then, 
there  are  its  cherished  and  hallowed  associations.  This  court  house  is  a  con- 
necting link  with  the  great  historic  past.  It  carries  us  back  to  colonial  days — 
to  the  men  who  were  conspicuous  in  the  great  Revolutionary  drama.  Those 
concerned  in  its  building  had  shared  the  privations,  the  sufTerinfTS  and  the 
disasters  of  the  seven  years'  war.  Some  of  them  h.id  stood  at  Concord  and 
Lexington  and  the  slopes  of  Bunker  ?Till.  They  ha^e  shared  the  gloom  of 
Long  Island;  the  exhilaration  of  Saratoga;  the  despair  of  Vallev  Forge;  and 
they  have  felt  the  wild  contagion  of  jov  when  Yorktown  proclaimed  "Corn- 
wallis  is  taken."  They  have  seen  the  British  flag  hauled  down,  and  in  its  place, 
above  the  dome  of  a  new  nation,  the  Stars  and  Stripes  appear.  They  saw 
the  rise  of  constitutional  government;  they  saw  their  country  grow  strong 
and  great;  thev  saw  it  spread  west-ward  towards  the  Pacific  and  south  to  the 
shores  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  the  stars  of  added  States  burst  into  blossom 
on  the  blue  of  its  flag.  And  these  men,  in  a  way,  transmitted  this  structure 
as  a  heritage  to  our  time.  Around  this  site  cling  also  legal  memories  that 
will  always  be  dear  to  our  profession.  For  great  lawyers  have  here  pressed 
their  suits  to  final  issue;  and  great  iudges  have  voiced  their  sound  opinions, 
and  pronounced  their  benediction.  Indeed,  in  these  crude  temples  of  justice 
throughout  the  new  republic,  was  laid  the  foundation  of  a  jurisprudence  that 
has  become  distinctively  American,  and  which  bids  fair  in  time  to  supplant 
the  more  cumbersome  system  of  Continental  Europe.     When  I  was  a  child 


3S6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

it  was  the  habit  of  lawyers  to  quote  the  common  law  of  England,  and  cite  Law 
Reports.  Today,  the  English  Law  Reports  are  hardly  cited  more  often  than 
the  Code  Napoleon,  or  the  Pandects  of  Justinian,  in  that  Rome  that  crumbled 
long  ago. 

In  this  quaint  structure,  consummate  statesmen  have  discussed  the  science 
of  government;  religious  reformers  enjoyed  the  right  of  speech;  and  great 
orators  have  electrified  the  people  of  their  time.  Here  Cowan  and  Marshall 
charmed  with  their  eloquence,  and  Daniel  Webster  defended  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

A  center  of  social  festivities,  here  our  citizens  greeted  for  the  last  time 
the  gallant  Decatur  in  the  War  of  1812;  and  later,  voiecd  their  enthusiastic 
welcome  to  General  Lafayette.  In  the  Civil  War  this  was  a  center  of  patriotic 
devotion,  consecrated  alike  to  the  living  and  the  dead. 

We  who  wished  a  new  court  house  have  never  lacked  reverence  which 
was  due  to  the  old.  But  we  wanted  to  preserve  this  site  to  further  genera- 
tions. And  today  we  share  in  whatsoever  pride  there  is  in  this  completed 
work.  We  congratulate  the  commissioners  on  what  they  have  done.  We  are 
pleased  with  the  remodeled  appearance  of  this  building — with  its  white  front 
and  green  blinds,  suggesting  to  some  of  us  the  happy  homes  of  childhood 
that  we  can  never  go  back  to.  But  especially  are  we  pleased  with  its  beauti- 
ful interior,  presenting  to  the  visitor  a  succession  of  surprises,  which  cul- 
minate in  this  elegant  court  room — one  of  the  finest  in  the  State.  We  thank 
the  architect,  Mr.  Donnelly,  for  his  splendid  ideals;  and  we  are  grateful  to 
the  builder,  Mr.  Douglas,  for  clothing  these  ideals  in  material  form.  And 
lastly,  we  congratulate  ourselves  on  the  choice  of  this  site — a  vindication  of 
our  fathers'  judgment  when  they  pronounced  it  the  most  convenient  and  best 
of  all  locations.  And  we  are  confident  that  whatever  happens,  whether  this 
structure  shall  quickly  perish,  or  endure  for  generations  to  come,  its  locatioit 
will  never  be  abandoned  as  a  court  house  site,  but  preserved  to  future  times. 
And  that  future  is  our  inspiration.  We  believe  that  posterity  will  look  up 
to  this  proud  eminence  and  be  glad ;  glad  that  here  the  figure  of  Justice  still 
holds  aloft  the  golden  scales ;  that  civic  taste  abides ;  that  government  endures  ; 
and  that  civilization  does  not  fall. 

A  meeting  of  the  bar  of  New  London  county  was  held  in  the  Court  House 
in  Norwich,  on  Friday,  June  30,  1922,  in  memory  of  four  of  its  members  who 
within  the  }ear  had  appeared  before  the  Great  Judge — Erastus  Sheldon  Day, 
William  B.  Coit,  Franklin  H.  Brown  and  Joseph  T.  Fanning.  Resolutions 
with  reference  to  Judge  Day,  prepared  by  a  committee  consisting  of  Thomas 
M.  Waller,  Lucius  Brown,  John  M.  Thayer,  Gardiner  Greene  and  Abel  P. 
Tanner,  were  read  by  Judge  Brov/n.  Judge  William  H.  Shields  delivered  the 
following  fervent  eulogy : 

Hon.  Erastus  Sheldon  Day,  of  Colchester,  in  New  London  county,  died 
at  his  home  there  on  August  2,  1921,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-five  years, 
following  an  illness  of  only  a  few  days'  duration.  Mr.  Day  was  born  in 
Colchester  on  July  7,  1836,  and  was  the  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Elihu  Marvin 
Day,  who  both  died  many  years  ago.  He  received  his  early  education  in  the 
public  schools  of  his  native  town,  which  was  supplemented  by  his  later 
attendance  at  Wilbraham  Academy.  Upon  the  completion  of  his  academic 
course  he  pursued  the  study  of  the  law  for  one  year  with  Ralph  Gilbert,  Esq., 
a  practicing  lawyer  at  Hebron,  and  later  took  up  his  legal  studies  at  Hart- 
ford for  two  years  in  the  law  offices  of  Welles  &  Strong,  and  with  the  firm 
of  Strong  &  Nicholas,  their  successors.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  of  the  Southern  Rebellion,  at  Hartford,  on  March  18, 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  357 

1861,  and  thereupon  took  up  the  active  practice  of  his  profession  in  his 
native  town  in  the  village  of  Colchester  and  became  a  busy  and  prominent, 
lawyer  in  that  section  of  the  State  at  the  New  London  County  Bar,  from  1861 
to  1897,  thirty-six  years.  In  the  same  year  that  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1861,  Mr.  Day  married  Catherine  Gardner  Olmstead,  daughter  of  Jonathan 
and  Elizabeth  Olmstead,  of  Westchester,  Connecticut.  Mrs.  Day  died  at 
Clifton  Springs,  New  York,  on  August  15,  1910. 

In  1897  Mr.  Day  was  appointed  by  President  McKinley,  United  States 
Consul  at  Bradford,  England,  which  office  he  held  for  twelve  years,  from 
1897  to  1909.  In  1909  he  resigned  the  consulship  and  returned  from  England 
to  the  United  States  to  his  home  in  the  village  of  Colchester,  and  retired 
wholly  from  the  activities  of  the  law  and  politics.  Early  in  his  career,  Mr. 
Day  attached  himself  to  politics  and  became  an  active  and  ardent  member 
of  the  Republican  party,  staunchly  adhering  to  and  advocating  the  principles 
of  that  party.  In  the  years  1862,  1864  and  1874,  Mr.  Day  was  chosen  and 
sent  from  Colchester  as  a  representative  of  that  town  in  the  General  As- 
sembly of  Connecticut.  In  the  year  1863,  Mr.  Day  was  chosen  Secretary  of 
the  Senate,  and  performed  the  duties  of  that  office  throughout  the  term  of 
the  sessions  of  that  body.  Later  for  five  years,  1886  to  1891,  Lawyer  Day 
held  the  place  of  chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee  of 
Connecticut,  and  as  such  had  charge  and  direction  of  the  State  and  national 
campaigns  of  the  Republican  party  in  Connecticut  in  those  years.  Those 
political  offices  held  by  Mr.  Day  brought  him  a  State-wide  acquaintance  with 
the  prominent,  influential  and  leading  men  in  political  and  legislative  life 
and  public  affairs  of  the  State,  and  those  prominent  men  of  various  activities 
in  turn  came  to  know  and  respect  Mr.  Day  as  a  leader  for  his  ability,  integrity, 
fairness,  sound  judgment  and  unselfishness  in  his  relations  to  them  and  to 
the  subject  matters  in  which  they  were  interested  or  concerned.  His  fidelity 
and  loyalty  to  clients,  friends,  and  fellow  men  were  firm  and  true  and  he 
enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  reliable  and  dependable  in  every  case  or 
exigency.     His  plighted  word  was  never  known  or  heard  to  be  broken. 

A  generation  and  more  ago  and  for  many  years  about  that  time,  there 
was  an  extensive  legislative  legal  practice  before  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  State  in  which  the  services  of  the  ablest  lawyers  were  engaged  at  the 
capitol.  Those  legislative  cases  generally  involved  large  interests  and  ex- 
penditures and  in  some  instances  vast  results.  The  parties  to  those  causes 
were  variously  towns,  cities,  railroads,  insurance  companies,  and  industrial 
and  other  corporations  and  occasionally  directly  the  State  itself.  Those  cases 
were  exhaustively  prepared  pro  and  con  on  the  law  and  the  facts  and  long 
hearings  were  held  before  designated  committees  of  the  General  Assembly 
with  witnesses  and  counsel  participating,  where  arguments  of  counsel  at 
length  were  had  as  before  a  court  and  jury.  For  a  long  time  Mr.  Day  was 
one  of  the  foremost  lawyers  in  the  most  important  of  those  contested  legis- 
lative cases  and  trials.  Through  that  legislative  law  practice  Mr.  Day  was 
further  brought  into  close  relation  and  acquaintance  with  the  most  promi- 
nent lawyers  and  citizens  of  Connecticut,  and  gained  the  reputation  of  a 
sound,  skillful  and  able  lawyer  in  that  important  branch  of  law  practice. 

Oftentimes  his  counsel  and  advice  were  sought  by  party  leaders  and  can- 
didates regarding  impending  party  conventions  and  nominations,  and  by 
governors  concerning  appointments  about  to  be  made  by  them  of  persons 
to  high  State  offices.  In  many  instances  Mr.  Day's  opinions  and  recommen- 
dations were  effective  and  led  to  nominations  and  appointments  of  the  very 
best  men  to  public  office.  In  late  years  in  his  reminiscences  of  those  stirring 
political  times  and  events,  Mr.  Day  took  much  gratification  in  recounting 
and  discussing  the  good  records  and  achievements  in  office  of  those  promi- 


358  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

tient  State  officials  whose  selection  came  about  through  his  quiet  and  im- 
partial influence  and  sound  judgment. 

Mr.  Day  had  no  desire  to  attain  for  himself  any  office  in  the  State.  It 
was  well  known  that  he  had  no  personal  ambition  whatever  in  that  line  to 
serve,  and  those  approaching  him  for  his  advice  and  judgment  knew  his  mind 
was  open  and  free  from  any  office-seeking  desire  on  his  part  to  affect  or 
prejudice  his  action  or  judgment.  And  so  he  was  the  more  readily  and  con- 
fidentlv  and  frequently  approached  by  others  for  his  help,  advice  and  judg- 
ment in  political  affairs. 

He  had  friends  in  every  part  of  the  State  and  in  the  highest  offices  of 
the  State,  many  of  whom  were  under  obligations  to  him  for  courtesies  ex- 
tended and  essential  help  freely,  cheerfully  and  gratuitously  given  in  im- 
portant matters  to  them.  Had  Mr.  Day  anv  aspirations  for  public  office,  he 
could  have  had  nominations  and  appointments  to  such  places  as  he  might 
have  chosen.  It  may  be  truly  said  of  Mr.  Day  that  had  he  shown  and  ex- 
pressed the  aspiration  and  ambition,  he  could  have  easily  attained  the  highest 
judicial  office  in  the  State — judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  or  State's  Attorney 
of  his  county,  or  even  the  governorship  of  his  State.  He  chose  the  plain  and 
simple  life,  and  was  contented  to  make  his  home  and  law  office  in  the  small 
and  isolated  village  of  Colchester,  where  persons  having  occasion  sought  him 
out  for  his  wise  counsel,  advice  and  aid. 

Mr.  Day  was  tall  in  stature,  erect  in  carriage,  spare  in  build,  had  an  open 
and  pleasing  coimtenance  and  altogether  he  possessed  an  impressive  and 
commanding  figure  and  in  the  ordinary  gatherings  of  men  about  him  he 
appeared  to  overlook  and  tower  above  his  associates.  He  was  always  familiar, 
cordial  and  pleasant  to  his  fellowmen  and  brethren  of  the  bar.  His  general 
manner  was  one  of  human  interest  and  sociability.  He  entertained  no  preju- 
dices or  dislikes  against  persons  because  of  racial,  religious,  political  or  other 
differences  from  him.  The  station,  high  or  low  of  one's  life,  did  not  move 
him  from  the  equipose  of  a  wellbred  man.  There  was  nothing  querulous  or 
critical-minded  in  his  attitude  or  dealings,  he  was  at  all  times  broadminded 
and  ever  equable  in  the  most  trying  circumstances,  and  was  what  we  may 
well  call  an  all  'round  good-natured  man. 

At  the  bar  in  the  trial  of  causes  to  the  judge  and  to  the  jury,  he  had 
an  easy  and  complacent  bearing  and  was  sure  of  himself  and  his  cause,  and 
by  his  demeanor  provoked  no  hostility,  but  rather  enlisted  the  full  attention, 
consideration  and  favor  of  the  trier  and  his  fellow  lawvers.  In  his  advocacy 
and  arguments  he  was  sensible,  zealous,  reasonable,  fair  and  convincing,  and 
was  susceptible  and  respectful  to  the  force  of  an  argument  against  him.  He 
had  absolute  self-control  and  poise,  and  in  the  heat  of  all  contentions  never 
allowed  anger,  recrimination  or  personalities  to  enter  the  discussions  on  his 
part,  or  himself  to  be  provoked  thereto  by  his  opponents. 

Surviving  Mr.  Day  were  two  daughters.  Misses  Elizabeth  Day  and  Susan 
I.  Day,  both  of  whom  lived  in  the  home  with  their  father;  and  two  sons, 
Edwin  M.  Dav,  of  Hartford,  and  David  S.  Day,  of  Bridgeport,  well  known, 
able  lawyers  at  the  bar  of  this  State. 

Judge  Shields  was  followed  by  Attorney  Abel  P.  Tanner  with  the  follow- 
ing eloquent  eulogy  on  Mr.  Day: 

Colonel  Rapier,  in  the  Peninsula  Campaign,  censuring  an  archaic  military 
custom,  once  said  of  the  English  soldier  that  he  was  never  officially  com- 
mended in  that  campaign  for  distinguished  service. 

I  fancy  the  same  could  have  been  said  sometimes  with  equal  truth  of 
Erastus  S.  Da^•.  He  controlled  the  destiny  of  his  party  in  this  State  for  years, 
with  phenomenal  success,  lifting  others  into  prominence,  while  he,  with  char- 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS  359 

acteristic  self-effacement,   toiled   in   the  background   and   carried   on  unseen. 
In  the  exceptionally  fine  tribute  to  him,  drafted  by  Judge  Shields,  is  a  sum- 
mary of  his  political  activities,  the  positions  he  filled,  the  oflices  he  held  and 
the  various  honors  conferred  upon  him.    It  is  not  a  lengthy  statement,  for  the 
positions,  after  all,  were  not  many,  and  the  honors  conferred  were  not  always 
distinguished.     We  are  constrained  to  turn  from  the  record  and  think  of  the 
places   he   could   have   had   for  the   asking,   in   any   attempt   to   appraise   his 
political  career.     Erastus  S.  Day  could  have  had  any  office  in  the  gift  of  this 
State.     He  could  have  been  its  governor  without  doubt ;  he  could  have  sat 
on  its  highest  bench  ;  he  could  have  been  a  national  figure  and  been  classed 
with  the  statesmen  of  his  time,  if,  forsooth,  he  had  cared.     Apparently  he 
didn't  care.     He  was  temperamentally  indifferent  to  the  lure  of  public  office. 
In  political  classification  he  was  of  that  number  who  ask  for  nothing  and 
always  get  it.     He  sat  at  the  civic  banquet  board  where  politicians  gathered, 
and  ate  the  bread  there  served,  without  carping  at  its  quality.     He  cheerfully 
passed  the  delicacies  on  to  the  neighboring  guests  without  first  helping  him- 
self, and  if  the  dish  came  back  empty,  as  it  generally  did,  he  never  complained. 
He  helped  others  to  secure  some  coveted  positions  of  honor  and  trust  which 
they  filled  passing  well ;  but  they  seldom  helped  him — he  never  asked  them 
to  do  so — and — he  did  not  help  himself.     Hence,  his  name  is  not  written  on 
the  scroll  of  fame.    Yet  he  was  intrinsically  great.     There  is  a  greatness  that 
we  call  innate — that  inheres  in  the  person — and  there  is  a  greatness  that  is 
conferred  from  without.     The  greatness  that  exists  in  the  person  survives; 
it  will  cross  the  final  tide;  but  the  greatness  that  is  conferred  will  stop  at 
the  water's  edge.     E.  S.  Day  was  personally  great.     He  was  forceful ;  he  was 
intellectual;  he  was  faithful;  he  was  honest;  he  was  stalwart  and  true.     Like 
the  City  of  God,  he  stood  four-square.     He  was  a  competent  and  resourceful 
lawyer  who  served  his  clients  well.    He  was  congenial  and  democratic  in  his 
contact  with  his  fellow-men.    He  never  drew  a  line  of  distinction  on  account 
of  color,  or  race,  or  the  size  of  a  bank  account.     He  believed   that  in   the 
country  "beyond  the  stars"  there  will  be  no  caste,  and  no  prestige  of  manu- 
factured greatness;  that  no  artificial  barriers  will  separate  in  the  clime  where 
earthly  glory  fades,  and  wealth   no  longer  dictates  its  own  terms.     He  did 
not  believe  it  is  a  crime  to  be  rich,  or  a  virtue  to  be  poor,  but  he  knew  that 
in  this  life  "money  talks,"  that  it  is  sometimes  deaf,  but  never  dumb,  but  he 
believed  that  in  the  other  it  will  be  mute  where  character  has  the  floor,  and 
the  gold  of  the  Indies  will  not  buy  as  much  as  the  widow's  mite. 

Today  we  construct  a  kind  of  mental  figure  of  him  as  wo  knew  him,  and 
others  knew  him,  and  place  it  in  the  sacred  cr\pt  where  other  figures  stand, 
to  meet  the  gaze  of  future  generations  when  we  have  disappeared.  The 
figure  mav  lack  detail — it  may  be  incomplete — it  may  be  overdrawn,  but  it 
corresponds  in  some  degree  to  the  man  we  knew  as  he  crossed  life's  solemn 
stage. 

Mr.  Day  was  born  July  7th.  1836,  the  last  year  of  Andrew  Jackson's 
administration.  He  died,  as  the  minutes  show,  on  the  second  of  August,  after 
a  life  of  eighty-five  years.  He  came  to  this  world  and  departed  from  it  in  the 
cheerful  summer  time  when  fields  and  mountain  sides  are  green;  he  came 
and  left  amid  the  scent  of  summer  flowers,  but  he  left  with  the  snows  of 
winter  on  his  head.  He  had  taken  life's  seven  steps.  To  use  another's  phrase, 
"In  him  the  four  seasons  were  complete,  and  spring  could  never  come  again." 
But  when  the  sun  had  set  and  the  shades  of  evening  were  merging  into  night, 
almost  it  seemed  the  end  of  a  "Perfect  Day." 

Many  years  ago  I  conversed  with  one  who  had  lived  in  Colchester  when 
Judge  Day  was  young,  and  who  knew  him  well.  Our  talk  was  mainly  of 
him,  and   one  curious  remark  of  my   acquaintance  has  bridged   the  gap  of 


36o  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

time.  He  said,  "When  clients  come,  Day  always  tells  them  to  settle  and 
keep  out  of  the  law."  Strange  advice  for  a  law}er,  yet  not  without  scrip- 
tural authority.  "Settle  with  thine  adversary  quickly,"  was  the  counsel  of 
the  wisest  of  mankind. 

Erastus  S.  Day  was  b}'  nature  conciliatory  and  pacific.  He  delighted 
in  compromise  as  the  culmination  of  the  diplomatic  art.  But  he  wanted 
honorable  compromise.  He  was  no  money-changer  in  the  Temple  where 
principles  are  bought  and  sold,  and  he  despised  the  cheap  barter  of  the  market 
place.  His  motto  was:  "To  3^our  God,  your  country,  and  your  friend,  be 
true."  He  was  essentially  a  peacemaker;  and  the  peacemaker  ranks  high  in 
New  Testament  literature.  Christ  said  on  the  Mountain  of  Olive,  "Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart  for  they  shall  see  God";  but  he  said  of  the  peacemakers, 
"They  shall  be  called  the  children  of  God." 

Mr.  Day  was  an  exemplification  of  New  England  manhood  and  courage, 
he  had  the  virtues  of  the  Puritan  with  few  of  his  faults.  When  you  had  con- 
versed with  him  you  felt  that  j'ou  had  met  the  traditional  New  Englander 
of  every  generation.  You  had  met  the  man  of  Concord  and  Bunker  Hill  and 
Yorktown's  Heights.  You  had  met  him  at  Lundy's  Lane  and  Cerro  Gordo ; 
you  had  met  him  at  Cold  Harbor  and  Appomattox;  you  had  met  him  even 
in  Flander's  Field  and  in  the  glory  of  Chateau  Thierry,  where  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  mingled  with  the  tri-color  of  France ;  and  the  lion  and  eagle  and  the 
lily  moved  side  by  side.  Call  this  rhetorical  extravagance  if  you  will ;  but 
let  me  cite  a  single  reminiscence. 

In  1863,  when  Mr.  Daj'  was  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  at  twenty- 
seven,  the  Honorable  Henrj'  C.  Demming,  of  Hartford,  then  a  member  of 
Congress,  invited  him  to  Washington,  and  when  he  arrived  he  took  him  to 
the  capitol  to  meet  Abraham  Lincoln.  Now  ilr.  Lincoln  in  those  days  was 
overrun  with  callers,  callers  from  everywhere.  Clergj'men  called  to  tell  him 
how  God  wished  him  to  conduct  the  war;  lawyers  called  to  advise  about  "the 
Constitution  as  it  is,  and  the  Union  as  it  was."  Editors  came  to  tell  him 
how  to  make  both  peace  and  war.  He  w-as  bored  to  death  with  callers ;  only 
his  inimitable  humon  saved  him  from  utter  distraction,  nevertheless,  he 
greeted  his  visitors  cordiallj'  and,  after  a  few  minutes'  conversation,  he  took 
the  young  lawyer  by  the  hand  and  said,  "Mr.  Day,  come  up  to  my  house,  I 
want  you  to  meet  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  the  children."  With  that  strange  insight 
of  his,  he  penetrated  the  character  of  his  guest  and  knew  that  he  stood  in  the 
presence  of  one  of  the  yeomanrj'  of  New  England. 

Mr.  Day  was  almost  the  last  of  the  lawj-ers  of  the  gfreat  Civil  War 
period,  and  I  cannot  take  leave  of  the  subject  without  some  mention  of  them. 
When  I  came  to  Norwich  in  war  time  to  a  great  political  demonstration, 
there  were,  approximately,  fifty  lawyers  in  New  London  county ;  and  one  of 
them.  Judge  Day,  was  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  but  on  the  excursion 
steamer  which  brought  us  here,  there  was  a  still  younger  lawyer,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  club  which  had  chartered  the  boat,  then  called  the  "Ulysses."  He 
was  a  trifle  below  medium  height — of  slender  build,  with  classic  features  and 
black  hair,  and  beardless  face,  and  glasses  that  glinted  in  the  sunlight ;  brilli- 
ant in  the  court  room,  magnetic  on  the  platform,  attractive  on  the  street,  he 
had  all  the  graces  of  the  orator,  with  a  voice  and  gesture  that  charmed,  and 
an  eloquence  that  stirred  the  multitude  to  action — that  lawyer  was  T.  M. 
Waller  at  twenty-four,  then  the  youngest  member  of  the  New  London  County 
Bar. 

But  time  has  wrought  its  changes  and  sixty  years  have  mingled  with  the 
silent  yesterdays.  That  cheering  throng  has  vanished,  and  with  it  the  three 
hundred,  more  or  less,  on  that  excursion  boat.  They  have  crossed  the  strange 
frontier;  and  somewhere,  in  some  inlet  of  the  sea,  the  ribs  of  the  "Ulysses" 


COURTS  AND  LAWYERS 


361 


dissolve  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide.  Today,  of  those  fifty  lawyers  who 
practiced  here  in  war  time,  he  who  was  the  youngest  member  is  all  that  is 
left,  and  he  is  old  and  white-haired  now.  In  a  little  while  you  will  be  con^ 
strained  to  say  in  melancholy  accents :  "The  last  of  all  the  Romans — fare 
you  well." 

1  commend  these  resolutions  to  the  memory  of  Judge  Day,  with  every 
feeling  of  respect.  He  has  reached  his  journey's  end;  "the  wine  of  life  is 
drawn,"  his  sands  are  run;  and  Fate  turns  the  hour-glass  no  more.  His 
career  is  finished ;  his  life  is  ended,  his  work  is  done ;  "the  rest  is  silence." 

Judge  Webb  closed  the  memorial  session  with  a  few  remarks  and  upon 
motion  of  Judge  Shields  the  resolutions  and  eulogies  were  ordered  to  be  in- 
corporated in  the  court  records. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN 

By  Charles  B.  Graves.  M.D.,  New  London 

The  rude  and  primitive  character  of  the  life  of  our  pioneer  ancestors  is 
well  illustrated  by  the  state  of  medicine  in  early  colonial  times.  What  was 
true  of  the  country  at  large  was  no  less  true  of  New  London  county.  A  few 
adventurous  physicians,  or  at  least  persons  who  practiced  "Physic,"  came  with 
the  first  immigrants,  like  Samuel  Fuller  of  the  "Mayflower,"  Giles  Fermin  of 
Ipswich,  Mr.  Pratt  of  Cambridge,  and  our  own  honored  John  Winthrop.  For 
many  years,  however,  the  colonists  were  greatly  lacking  in  skilled  medical 
service.  It  is  true  that  as  many  as  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  are  named  by 
Savage  as  physicians  belonging  to  the  first  three  generations,  that  is,  up  to 
1692.  Many  of  these,  however,  were  ministers  and  others  who  practiced  medi- 
cine more  or  less  in  addition  to  their  regular  vocations.  But  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  number  of  trained  and  educated  physicians  in  the  whole  country  before 
1700  was  pitifully  small.  The  rigorous  conditions  of  life  in  the  new  settlements 
and  the  entire  absence  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  of  medical  centers  of  learning 
and  research,  the  utter  lack  of  hospitals  and  libraries,  and  the  meager  pecuniary 
returns,  were  distinctly  repellent.  This  last  consideration  was  voiced  bv  Giles 
Fermin  (Steiner,'  p.  2,  quoting  Hutchinson) :  "I  am  strongly  sett  upon  to 
Studye  divinity;  my  studies  else  must  be  lost,  for  physic  is  but  a  meane  help." 
Pratt  also  had  siimlar  troubles,  as  noted  by  Governor  Winthrop.  "But  he  had 
long  been  discontented  because  his  employment  was  not  so  profitable  to  himself 
as  he  desired,  and  it  is  like  he  feared  lest  he  should  fall  into  want  in  his  old 
age."  (Packard, °  p.  12.)  Nevertheless,  with  growth  of  the  population  of  the 
colonies,  the  number  of  physicians  did  gradually  increase.  Some  few  of  these 
had  a  college  education.  A  very  small  proportion  had  medical  degrees,  mostly 
obtained  in  England  or  Scotland.* 

Not  until  1765  was  a  medical  school  established  in  this  country.  In  that 
year  the  sixteen  year  old  University  of  Pennsylvania  organized  a  medical  de- 
partment. This  was  closely  followed  in  1768  by  the  Medical  School  of  Kings 
College,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  of  which  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons of  the  University  of  New  York  was  a  direct  continuation.  The  year 
1783  witnessed  the  founding  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  1798  that  of 
Dartmouth.  So  that  down  to  the  year  1800  there  were  only  four  medical 
schools  in  the  whole  United  States.  According  to  Packard'  (p.  156),  "It  has 
been  estimated  that  at  the  outset  of  the  War  for  Independence  there  were 
upward  of  three  thousand  five  hundred  practitioners  of  medicine  in  the  colonies 
of  whom  not  more  than  four  hundred  had  received  medical  degrees."  Even 
until  well  down  into  the  19th  century  the  general  custom  was  for  the  young 
aspirant  to  the  medical  profession  to  repair  to  some  physician  of  established 
reputation  and  put  himself  under  his  tutelage.     In  fact,  he  was  apprenticed  to 


♦Superior  figures  refer  to  authorities  cited  at  end  of  '.h's  rlnptcr. 


364  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

him  for  a  certain  definite  term.  It  frequently  happened  that  the  preceptor  was 
father,  uncle  or  other  relative  of  the  student.  Oftentimes  it  was  some  nearby 
prominent  doctor.  In  other  cases  a  special  reputation  drew  scholars  from  a 
greater  distance.  For  a  local  example,  in  1753  a  grandson  of  Joshua  Hemp- 
stead, the  diarist,  was  apprenticed  for  a  year  or  more  to  Dr.  Ezekiel  Porter  of 
Wethersfield.  Certain  eminent  practitioners  such  as  Dr.  Jared  Eliot  of  Killing- 
worth,  Drs.  Norman  Morrison  and  I,emuel  Hopkins  of  Hartford,  and  Drs. 
Philip  Turner  and  Philemon  Tracy  of  Norwich,  maintained  what  were  in  fact 
small  private  medical  schools,  and  had  a  considerable  following  of  students. 
The  life  of  the  medical  apprentice  had  its  hard  and  unpleasant  features.  Many 
of  his  tasks  were  decidedly  menial.  Taking  care  cf  the  doctor's  horses,  running 
errands,  preparing  and  putting  up  medicines  are  samples  of  the  duties  falling 
upon  him.  On  the  other  hand,  his  opportunities  were  often  great.  Such  book- 
knowledge  as  he  acquired  was  doubtless  helpful,  but  the  most  important  and 
directly  valuable  part  of  his  education  was  obtained  by  precept  and  example 
of  an  old  and  experienced  practitioner.  He  accompanied  the  doctor  on  his 
daily  rounds,  was  introduced  into  the  household  of  his  patients,  and  thus  had 
abundant  intimate  bedside  instruction.  Of  equal  importance  to  his  future 
success  was  his  chance  to  learn  from  an  older,  successful  man  the  art  of 
meeting  people  and  tactful  conduct  in  the  sickroom.  As  Dr.  Russell'  says: 
"The  fortune  of  many  a  brilliant  man  has  been  marred  by  his  ignorance  of  a 
pleasant  entrance  and  by  his  want  of  a  graceful  departure."  Not,  to  be  sure, 
that  a  gracious  manner  v.-as  always  characteristic  of  the  noted  men  of  those 
days.  Quite  the  contrary,  all  too  often  a  brusqueness  of  manner  and  a  rude- 
ness of  speech  either  natural  or  gradually  acquired  were  characteristic  of  men 
of  marked  ability  and  large  following.  If  backed  by  practical  success  and 
especially  by  a  kind  heart,  such  mannerisms  were  forgotten.  On  the  other 
hand,  then  as  now,  such  peculiarities,  associated  with  a  self-confident  manner 
and  an  authoritative  tone,  often  cloaked  real  mediocrity.  Not  only  was  the 
instruction  practical  and  intim.ate.  but  it  was  also  broad.  The  doctor  until 
recently,  and  more  especially  in  early  days,  was  par  excellence  a  general  prac- 
titioner. His  practice  ran  the  gamut  of  all  diseases  and  injuries,  and  he  had 
to  do  his  best  with  any  condition  that  might  arise.  As  a  rule,  also,  he  carried 
the  responsibility  alone,  but  in  important  cases  consultations  were  not  infre- 
quently resorted  to.  Furthermore,  there  were  no  apothecaries  or  drug  stores, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  prepare  and  dispense  his  own  medicine.  Besides  the  old 
familiar  drugs,  native  herbs  were  also  used  to  a  considerable  extent.  His  was 
also  a  family  practice,  and  the  close  bond  of  doctor  and  patient  was  often 
unbroken  for  two  or  three  generations. 

Under  such  conditions  the  medical  novice  found  his  education.  Not  always 
was  his  lot  a  hard  one.  To  the  satisfaction  of  good  work  done  and  the  sense 
of  power  born  of  his  new  knowledge  and  training,  there  were  oftentimes  added 
other  amenities.  The  intimate  relationship  established  between  the  doctor's 
family  and  the  medical  student  in  many  instances  ended  in  a  romance  as  a 
result  of  which  the  young  man  later  married  one  of  his  preceptor's  daughters. 
Such  were  the  conditions  generally  obtaining  as  regards  the  training  of  doctors 
down  to  the  earlv  nineteenth  century.  A  survival  of  the  old  custom  seen  in  the 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAE  MEN  365 

retention  of  preceptor  in  addition  to  the  course  in  a  regular  medical  school,  did 
not  die  out  entirely  until  the  fourth  quarter.  It  is  worth  while  occasionally  to 
attempt  to  visualize  the  life  of  an  old-time  practitioner,  if  only  that  we  may 
contrast  it  with  present-day  conditions.  Dr.  Russell'  (p.  208-210)  has  given 
a  good  description,  from  which  I  quote: 

"The  doctor  was  usually  a  familiar  in  the  household,  and  while  he  was  the 
subject  of  criticism  and  gossip,  was  yet  retained  in  service  longer  than  at 
present.  The  opportunity  for  change  was  not  convenient,  and  then,  too,  there 
was,  I  suspect,  a  stronger  bond  of  union  between  patient  and  physician  than 
generally  prevails  at  this  day ;  for  the  intercourse  which  was  begun  with  the 
father  was  continued  with  the  children,  until  death  broke  the  bond  which  had 
united  them  so  long. 

"The  physician  who  was  in  demand  generally  traveled  long  distances,  and, 
consequently,  was  much  away  from  home.  Starting  early  in  the  morning,  a 
tedious  ride  was  before  him,  always  on  horseback  in  the  early  days,  and  it  was 
quite  unknown  when  he  would  return.  The  regular  office  hours  of  the  modern 
doctor  were  altogether  beyond  his  knowledge,  and  probably  beyond  his  belief. 
He  knew  nothing  of  ease  and  leisure,  but  plodded  on  in  his  daily  calling,  his 
round  of  duty  as  tiresome  and  endless  as  that  of  the  farmers'  wives  all  over 
the  country.  He  expected  to  find  his  dinners  where  time  had  conveniently 
placed  him. 

"The  saddlebags  of  leather  held  precious  drugs,  which  were  carried  about 
from  day  to  day.  When  borne  into  the  house,  the  opening  must  have  excited 
the  wonder  of  the  children  as  much  as  the  tin  trunk  of  the  peddler  at  a  later 
period.  A  store  of  powders,  pills,  and  tinctures,  syrups,  and  electuaries,  com- 
pounds under  names  not  now  known  by  us,  roots  and  leaves,  enabled  him  to 
prescribe  freely,  and  probably  effectually ;  he  carried  with  him  a  little  of  every- 
thing which  was  needed  for  immediate  use." 

The  charges  seemed  very  small,  a  shilling  or  even  less  per  visit,  with  some 
increase  due  for  mileage  being  the  common  fee  down  nearly  or  quite  to  1800. 
After  that,  fifty  cents  was  the  usual  charge.  However,  such  a  sum  must  be 
considered  in  relation  to  the  purchasing  power  of  money  at  the  time,  and 
relatively  would  not  be  as  small  as  it  looks  at  first  sight.  Medicines,  however, 
seem  to  have  been  quite  costly ;  at  least  the  charges  for  them  represent  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  expense  of  medical  attendance.  Competition  was  not 
lacking.  Besides  the  clergymen  and  school-masters  who  frequently  attended 
the  sick,  there  were  midwives  who  had  a  large  share  of  the  obstetric  practice, 
and  also  men  who  bled  or  pulled  teeth.  The  universal  prevalence  of  all  sorts 
of  superstitions  is  a  characteristic  of  those  early  times  which  is  familiar  to 
all,  but  which  may  be  mentioned  as  hampering  the  efforts  of  the  clear-headed 
medical  men  and  delaying  medical  progress. 

Another  outstanding  feature  of  those  times  was  the  almost  utter  lack  of 
sanitary  knowledge  and  practice  among  all  classes  of  people,  and  of  course 
among  the  immigrants.  The  consequences  of  such  ignorance  had  a  profound 
influence  upon  the  life  of  the  colonists,  which  reached  down  to  comparatively 
recent  times.  The  early  narratives  and  correspondence  are  full  of  references 
to  the  ravages  of  illness,  especially  epidemic  diseases,  and  some  of  the  most 
striking  and  interesting  aspects  of  our  early  history  have  to  do  with  such 
occurrences.     The  conditions  under  which  the  early  immigrants  crossed  the 


366  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

ocean,  by  reason  of  overcrowding,  poor  and  insufficient  food,  and  the  length 
of  the  voyage,  not  only  led  to  great  mortality  on  the  passage,  but  so  under- 
mined the  health  of  those  that  survived  as  to  leave  them  very  ill  prepared  to 
contend  with  the  hardships  and  rigorous  conditions  of  the  new  country  whither 
they  were  bound. 

A  striking  instance  is  related  by  Packard'  (p.  65)  :  "Upon  a  voyage  to 
Virginia  in  1618  by  Francis  Blackwell,  there  were  one  hundred  and  eighty 
of  them  crowded  into  a  very  small  vessel.  Disease  broke  out  among  them 
and  proved  fatal  to  Blackwell  and  the  captain  of  the  ship.  By  the  time 
Virginia  was  reached,  one  hundred  and  thirty  deaths  had  occurred  on  the 
vessel."  As  is  well  known,  of  the  one  hundred  "Mayflower"  pilgrims,  just  half 
died  during  the  first  winter,  probably  from  scurvy.  Such  devastations  were 
due  largely  to  the  debilitated  condition  brought  about  by  the  voyage,  which 
made  them  an  easy  prey  to  infectious  diseases,  and  moreover  found  them 
unable  to  resist  the  severe  climatic  conditions  of  the  new  land  when  associated 
with  overcrowding  combined  with  unsuitable  and  inadequate  food. 

The  rudimentary  knowledge  of  sanitary  science  was  reflected  in  the  very 
meager  sanitary  legislation  of  early  times.  Down  to  near  the  close  of  the 
i8th  century  such  laws  as  were  passed  were  occasioned  usually  by  particular 
emergencies,  and  almost  invariably  were  concerned  with  preventing  the  spread 
of  small  pox  (vid.  Lindsley*). 

Epidemic  Diseases. — It  goes  without  saying  that  the  conditions  just  de- 
scribed were  especially  favorable  to  the  invasion  and  spread  of  infectious 
diseases.  From  the  beginning,  it  was  such  visitations  that  were  especially 
dreaded.  A  few  years  before  the  Pilgrims  landed,  the  Indians  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  region  had  been  all  but  exterminated  by  an  epidemic  which  has 
been  diagnosed  by  some  as  small  pox  and  by  others  as  some  form  of  infectious 
fever.  Without  doubt  there  were  infectious  diseases  in  New  London  county 
from  the  beginning,  but  the  first  reference  known  to  me  occurs  in  Thomas 
Minor's"  diary,  where,  February  8th,  1657-58,  he  mentions  a  case  of  measles  in 
his  own  family. 

Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet,'  who  was  the  second  minister  of  the  First  Church 
of  New  London,  records  in  his  diary  that  July  and  August,  1670,  were  sickly 
in  various  places,  mentioning  "Lime  and  Stonington."  The  same  diarist,  after 
mentioning  two  deaths  occurring  in  New  London  in  1683,  says:  "They  both 
dyed  of  a  malignant  feaver  wch  was  very  severe  thro :  this  Colony." 

Of  all  the  diseases  to  which  the  colonists  were  subject,  the  most  dreaded, 
as  is  well  known,  was  the  small  pox.  The  oft-quoted  passage  in  Macaulay 
will  bear  repetition.  Calling  it  "The  most  terrible  of  the  ministers  of  death," 
he  says :  "The  small  pox  was  always  present,  filling  the  church  yards  with 
corpses,  leaving  in  those  whose  lives  it  spared  the  hideous  traces  of  its  power, 
turning  the  babe  into  a  changeling,  at  which  the  mother  shuddered,  and  mak- 
ing the  eyes  and  cheeks  of  the  betrothed  maiden  objects  of  terror  to  the 
lover." 

The  first  mention  of  the  disease  in  New  London  county  known  to  me, 
occurs  in  the  diary  of  Manasseh  Minor'  of  Stonington,  where  in   1689-90  he 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  367 

records  several  deaths  from  the  small  pox.  It  is  probable  that  the  same  out- 
break affected  New  London  at  that  time,  as  appears  from  Miss  Caulkins" 
quotation  from  the  court  records:  "June  1690.  The  Court  adjourned  to  first 
Tuesday  in  August  on  account  of  the  contagious  distemper  in  town."  The 
year  1700  marked  the  reappearance  of  small  pox  in  Stonington,  and  Manasseh 
Minor  mentions  cases  occurring  in  that  town  from  time  to  time  during  that 
and  the  two  following  years,  with  at  least  five  deaths  caused  by  that  disease. 
It  was  part  of  a  very  severe  and  widespread  epidemic  which  reached  its 
height  in  Boston  in  1702. 

The  diary  of  Joshua  Hempstead,'  which  begins  in  171 1  and  continues  to 
1758,  has  a  number  of  references  to  small  pox.  Under  date  of  April  18,  1719, 
he  notes  cases  brought  in  by  vessel,  and  May  9th  "Ephraim  Avery  was  buried 
on  Powder  Island,    he  died  with  the  Small  Pox  on  bord  of  Capt  King." 

Powder  Island,  a  small  islet  a  little  below  Fort  Trumbull  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Harbor,  was  one  of  the  earliest  quarantine  stations.  Miss  Caulkins* 
(p.  474)  says :  "The  beautiful  beach  along  the  mouth  of  the  river,  north  of  the 
lighthouse,  v.'as  for  many  years  used  as  a  kind  of  quarantine  ground.  At 
various  periods,  the  small-pox  has  been  a  scourge  to  the  town.  Between 
1750  and  1760,  vessels  were  continually  arriving  with  this  disease  on  board. 
The  selectmen  were  the  only  health  officers,  and  it  fell  to  them  to  dispose  of 
the  sick,  and  to  the  town  to  defray  most  of  the  charges.  At  the  White  Beach 
and  Powder  Island,  such  vessels  were  usually  stayed,  and  there  many  a  victim 
to  the  perilous  infection  was  cast  into  the  earth  as  a  thing  utterly  abhorred." 

Hempstead  records  its  presence  again  in  1721  and  1730.  In  the  first  year 
the  Governor  and  Council  sat  at  New  London  and  made  regulations  with 
regard  to  small  pox.  In  the  latter  and  following  years  Hempstead  made 
entries  which  give  an  idea  of  his  official  duties  in  connection  with  such  cases. 
June  22nd  and  27th,  1730,  he  was  at  court  with  Justice  Plumb  "about  moving 
G.  Buttolphs  Brig  down  to  Powder  Island."  In  1732,  November  8th :  "Sent 
a  post  to  the  Govr  at  Hartford  Concerning  the  Small  pox."  In  1733  the  dis- 
ease was  introduced  from  the  Barbadoes.  He  writes:  "I  ordered  them  to 
Ly  at  Powder  Island  until  further  orders."  Other  minor  invasions  took  place 
in  1746-48.  Late  in  1752  there  were  five  deaths  out  of  eight  cases.  November 
4th  he  says:  "I  was  with  the  Selectmen  att  the  Harbours  mouth  taking  Care 
of  Capt  Thomas  Eames  &  Crew  in  a  Brigg  from  New  york.  Divers  of  his 
men  &  himself  Sick  with  the  Small  pox."  On  the  12th  he  records  deaths 
"att  the  white-beach  in  Peter  Lattimers  House."  — "buryed  yesterday  by  one 
of  the  Sand  Banks."  On  December  Sth:  "I  was  most  of  the  day  with  Mrss 
Chapman  Adam  and  Hurlbut  Selectmen  Removing  Hannah  Preston  in  Jas 
Harris's  House.  She  is  taken  with  the  Small  pox.  Widow  Hobbs  is  prest 
to  Nurse  her  &:  we  Carted  Harris's  Household  Stuff  to  Doctor  Coits  house." 
Two  days  later:  "Sund  10  fair.  Mr.  William  adams  pr  all  day.  in  the  ioren 
I  Stayed  at  home  to  assist  in  the  small  pox  affair,  they  have  fenced  the 
Highway  up  from  Trumans  Corner  to  Holts  &  across  the  hill  from  Holts 
Corner  to  Hills  Lot."  In  1756  and  '57  it  appeared  again,  and  in  the  latter 
year  some  of  Hempstead's  own  relatives  were  affected  and  moved  "to  the 
lighthouse  so  called  below  the  harbours  mouth." 


368  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

As  is  well  known,  the  practice  of  inoculation  of  small  pox  was  introduced 
in  Boston  in  1721  by  Dr.  Zadiel  Boylston.  The  fact  that  there  is  no  mention 
of  the  practice  in  Hempstead's  diary  would  go  to  show  that  it  was  very  late 
in  getting  a  foot-hold  in  this  part  of  New  England.  It  was  at  first  everywhere 
bitterly  fought,  recognition  of  its  value  both  in  and  out  of  the  profession  being 
very  slow.  The  first  law  bearing  upon  the  subject  passed  by  the  Connecticut 
General  Assembly  was  in  1760,  prohibiting  the  practice  in  any  town  except 
by  written  consent  of  the  major  part  of  the  civil  authority  and  selectmen. 
The  next  year  it  was  forbidden  altogether.  This  prohibition  was  renewed 
and  confirmed  no  less  than  twelve  times  in  the  ten  years  to  1769,  when  it  was 
declared  in  force  for  the  future.  In  1777,  however,  inoculation  was  legalized, 
subject  to  such  restriction  as  boards  of  health  might  impose.     (Lindsley.') 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  century,  inoculation  hospitals  came  into  vogue. 
These  also  met  with  strenuous  opposition  at  first.  The  conflict  was  particu- 
larly bitter  in  Norwich  (Caulkins,"  pp.  427-8),  beginning  in  1760,  when  the 
town  voted  down  the  following  proposition :  "Will  the  town  approve  of  Dr. 
Elisha  Lord's  proceeding  to  inoculate  for  the  Small  pox,  under  any  regulations 
whatever?"  The  question  was  brought  up  again  from  time  to  time  by  those 
believing  in  the  practice,  but  always  with  the  same  result.  "The  popular 
feeling  was  excited  almost  to  violence  whenever  the  faculty  brought  up  the 
question."  In  1773  a  hospital  for  inoculation  was  opened  by  Drs.  Philip 
Turner  and  Jonathan  Loomis  on  an  island  oflf  the  Stonington  shore.  They 
were  soon  obliged  to  give  it  up,  however,  on  account  of  the  violent  opposition 
of  the  dwellers  on  the  mainland.  Miss  Caulkins"  states  that:  "In  April,  1774, 
Dr.  Loomis  was  arrested  and  committed  to  prison  on  the  charge  of  having 
communicated  the  infection  of  small  pox  by  inoculation  to  two  persons  in 
Stonington.  He  escaped  from  his  cell  after  a  few  days'  confinement,  and  the 
Norwich  jailkeeper,  Sims  Edgerton,  advertised  him  and  offered  a  reward  for 
his  apprehension,  as  v/ould  have  been  done  in  the  case  of  a  notorious  crim- 
inal." Dr.  Elisha  Tracy,  also,  although  recognized  as  a  distinguished  and 
skillful  physician,  was,  according  to  Dr.  Woodward"  (p.  176),  presented  by 
two  grand  jurors  of  the  county  "for  communicating  the  Small-pox  by  inocula- 
tion to  Elijah  Lathrop  and  Benjamin  Ward,  both  of  Norwich  aforesaid,  and 
sundry  other  persons  against  the  peace,  and  contrary  to  the  laws  of  this 
State."  He  plead  guilty,  and  "was  held  in  a  recognizance  of  sixty  pounds,  to 
appear  and  answer  before  the  county  court."  Further  efiforts  were  made 
by  Drs.  Elihu  Marvin  and  Philemon  Tracy  in  1787  to  get  permission  to  open 
a  hospital  for  inoculation,  subject  to  the  control  of  the  selectmen,  but  in  vain. 
As  the  next  best  thing,  however,  they  found  two  suitable  sites  near  the  river 
in  the  town  of  Montville,  and  there,  together  with  Drs.  Jeremiah  Rogers  and 
David  H.  Jewett  of  Montville,  as  their  associates,  they  at  last  were  able  to 
carry  on  the  practice  unhindered.  Not  until  1795  did  the  town  of  Norwich 
vote  authority  to  Drs.  Tracy  and  James  W.  Whiting  to  open  in  the  following 
spring  an  inoculation  hospital  within  the  town  limits  under  the  regulation 
of  the  civil  authority. 

So  far  as  New  London  is  concerned,  there  appears  no  evidence  of  any 
strenuous  controversy.     Miss  Caulkins'  gives  the  town  record  of  June  23. 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  369 

1777,  as  follows :  "voted  almost  unanimously  to  admit  of  inoculation  of  small 
pox  agreeably  to  a  resolve  of  the  General  Assembly  in  May  last."  In  the  '90s 
there,  were  two  such  hospitals  in  the  town,  one  kept  by  Dr.  Thomas  Coit,  Jr., 
the  ether  by  Dr.  Samuel  H.  P.  Lee. 

A  few  years  later,  following  Jenner's  immortal  discovery  in  1799  of  the 
efficacy  of  vaccination  as  a  preventive  of  small  pox,  inoculation  became  a  thing 
of  the  past.  Vaccination  was  taken  up  in  this  country  with  remarkable 
promptness.  One  of  the  first  physicians  in  Connecticut  to  adopt  and  push 
the  practice  was  Dr.  Elisha  North,  then  living  in  Goshen,  but  later  a  resident 
of  New  London.  Other  physicians  of  the  county  who  were  early  advocates 
and  users  of  the  method  were  Drs.  John  R.  Watrous  of  Colchester,  and  Dr. 
Vine  Utley  of  East  Lyme.  It  appears  from  Dr.  Watrous'  ledger  that  he 
frequently  employed  Dr.  Utley  to  come  up  to  Colchester  and  do  his  vaccin- 
ating. The  ordinary  charge  was  six  shillings.  Thus  in  1805-06  items  like 
the  following  are  not  infrequent:  "To  2  inoculations  for  Kine  Pock  by  Doct 
Utley  -0-12-0."  (Dr.  John  R.  Watrous,  mss.  Ledger  C.)  With  the  general 
adoption  of  the  practice  epidemics  of  small  pox  became  more  and  more  rare. 

Passing  to  other  infectious  diseases,  the  first  mention  of  the  occurrence 
of  measles  in  this  county,  so  far  as  I  know,  occurs  in  the  diary  of  Thomas 
Minor'  of  Stonington.  He  writes  under  date  of  February  8th,  1657-58,  "Joseph 
had  the  measles."  In  the  winter  of  1713-14  New  London  was  severely  visited 
with  the  disease,  according  to  Hempstead,'  and  there  were  seven  deaths  in 
two  months.  This  outbreak,  which  continued  until  1716,  was  probably  the 
latter  part  of  the  general  epidemic  of  measles  in  America  which  Webster" 
says  prevailed  in  1713.  Hempstead  notes  also  several  deaths  from  the  disease 
in  1740,  coincident  with  a  state-wide  epidemic  of  severe  character.  Undoubt- 
edly other  outbreaks  have  taken  place  at  more  or  less  irregular  intervals,  but, 
as  applying  to  our  county,  precise  information  is  lacking. 

Of  other  infectious  diseases  special  mention  should  be  made  of  diphtheria. 
In  1689  there  was  in  New  London  a  severe  epidemic  of  w-hat  was  probably 
this  disease.  Aliss  Caulkins'  quotes  the  tov.-n  clerk's  record  as  follows :  "An 
Accompt  of  severall  persons  Deceased  by  the  present  Distemper  of  sore 
throats  and  ffeaver  which  Distemper  hath  passed  through  most  familys  & 
proved  very  mortall  with  many  Especially  to  those  that  now  have  it  in  this 
more  than  ordinary  Extremity  of  hot  weather,  the  Like  haveing  not  been 
knov.-ne  in  ye  Memory  of  man."  There  were  twenty-five  deaths  in  the  tcwn 
that  summer,  most  of  them  from  the  epidemic  disease. 

The  first  record  in  Hempstead  of  diphtheria  occurs  July  23rd,  1726,  when 
a  child  of  four  "died  with  a  distemper  of  the  throat."  He  notes  it  again  in 
1731  and  '36.  In  the  latter  year  there  were  fourteen  deaths  in  New  London 
from  the  disease  during  seven  months.  He  calls  it  variously,  "throat  dis- 
temper," "sore  throat  distem.per,"  and  what  he  speaks  of  as  "canker"  was 
doubtless  the  same  disease.    Cases  were  frequent  also  in  1743-44  and  1751-56. 

Dysentery,  "bloody  flux,"  is  another  disease  which  terribly  ravaged  the 
settlements  in  early  times.  The  first  notice  of  it  in  our  region  known  to  me 
occurs  in  Hempstead's  diary,  where  cases  are  cited  in  September  and  October, 
1722.     It  is  not,  of  course,  to  be  supposed  that  this  was  its  first  appearance. 


370  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Frequently  after  that,  it  afflicted  the  inhabitants,  as  in  September  and  October, 
1729,  when  he  records  five  or  six  deaths  from  "bloody  flux  which  distemper 
prevails  much  in  this  town."    It  appeared  again  in  1734  and  1753. 

During  the  last  forty  }  ears  of  the  i8th  centurj'  many  parts  of  Connecticut 
were  sorely  ravaged  by  this  and  other  infections.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  New 
London  county  may  have  suffered  in  like  manner,  but  thus  far  no  records  of 
such  have  come  to  my  notice. 

Another  disease  that  took  a  heavy  toll  was  what  was  called  then  pleurisy, 
"malignant"  or  "putrid,"  but  which  was  probably  in  most  cases  what  is  now 
called  pneumonia.  The  first  record  of  it  that  I  have  seen,  though  it  had  doubt- 
less occurred  earlier,  is  in  Hempstead's  diary  in  1731,  where  the  entry  is: 
"Died  of  a  Pleurisy  Taken  Tuesday  &  buried  on  Saturd."  From  then  on 
that  disease  is  mentioned  as  a  frequent  cause  of  death.  Later  in  the  century, 
in  1761,  1781,  1789-90  and  1793,  there  v.ere  epidemics  of  this  disease,  probably 
often  with  influenza,  in  other  parts  of  the  State.  Whether  New  London 
county  shared  in  those  outbreaks  I  have  no  present  means  of  knowing.  We 
have,  however.  Dr.  Vine  Utley's"  account  of  an  epidemic  of  influenza  with 
pneumonia  in  Waterford  and  Lyme  in  1813.  Of  the  other  infectious  diseases, 
except  for  Hempstead's  mention  of  whooping  cough,  there  seems  to  be  little 
or  nothing  on  record. 

Of  malaria,  however,  there  is  somewhat  more  to  be  said.  It  was  prob- 
ably present  from  the  earh'  j-ears  of  the  settlement,  as  it  was  known  in  the 
New  Haven  colony  practically  from  the  beginning.  Thomas  Minor'  under 
date  of  August  20,  1670,  writes:  "hanah  had  her  ffirst  ffit,"  and  the  next  year, 
May  25th,  he  notes:  "My  wife  had  a  fit  of  ague."  In  1668  Mr.  Bradstreet' 
mentions  "Feaver  and  ague"  as  "verj'  prevalent  toward  the  westward,  espe- 
cially at  Guilford."  Throughout  almost  the  whole  of  Hempstead's  diary,  at 
least  until  1751,  there  are  frequent  allusions  to  cases  of  this  disease,  occurring 
both  in  New  London  and  Stonington.  The  same  is  true  with  what  was  prob- 
ably tj-phoid  fever,  called  by  Hempstead  "nervous"  or  "long"  fever.  Both 
diseases  were  probably  more  or  less  endemic  in  our  area  at  that  time.  I  have 
no'knowledge  of  the  prevalence  of  malaria  in  New  London  after  Hempstead's 
time  until  well  toward  the  middle  of  the  next  century.  There  seems  to  have 
been  an  intermission  of  greater  or  less  duration,  for,  as  stated  by  C.  W.  Cham- 
berlain": "It  reappeared  in  New  London  count\'  in  1837  lasting  till  1843. 
There  were  a  few  cases  each  year." 

There  were  epidemics  also  of  doubtful  nature.  Quoting  from  another 
article  bv  the  author"  (p.  73) :  "In  1724-25  New  London  was  visited  by  a 
very  malignant  epidemic  in  the  course  of  which  there  were  thirty-five  deaths 
in  Februarv  and  March.  Hempstead  in  his  diary  says  'frj-d  5th  (March)  fair 
warm  &  pleasant  wether  overhead,  but  the  Most  sorrowfull  time  yt  Ever  was 
seen  in  N.  London  for  Alortality  their  Lyes  now  this  morning.  6  persons 
dead  &  I  negro  woman  of  Groton.'  Unfortunately,  not  the  slightest  clue  as 
to  the  nature  of  this  disease  is  given  us." 

In  the  same  paper"'  (p.  75)  another  epidemic  of  uncertain  character  is 
thus  described:  "In  1746  a  peculiar  disease  appeared  among  the  Mohegan 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  371 

Indinns.  By  Webster  it  is  conjectured  to  have  been  of  the  same  nature  as 
an  eyiidemic  which  occurred  in  Albany,  New  York,  at  the  same  time,  and 
whicli  Dr.  Cadwallader  Colden  called  a  nervous  fever,  and  Dr.  Douglass  3  ellow 
fever.  It  began  in  August  and  ended  with  frost.  The  sick  Indians  were 
i.ttended  by  Dr.  Elisha  Tracy  of  Norwich,  whose  son.  Dr.  Philemon  Tracy, 
gave  Webster  his  information.  The  disease,  quoting  Webster,  'began  with 
severe  pain  in  the  head  and  back  followed  bj'  fever;  and  in  three  or  four  days 
the  skin  turned  'as  yellow  as  gold,'  a  vomiting  of  black  matter  took  place  and 
generall  ••  a  bleeding  at  the  nose  and  mouth  till  the  patient  died.  These  are 
the  words  of  the  old  Indian  as  penned  by  mj'  informant.'  Dr.  Tracy  was 
af?ected  with  the  disease  but  recovered.  About  one  hundred  died.  This  out- 
break seems  to  have  been  confined  to  the  Indians.  Its  nature  must  remain 
in  doubt,  but  the  possibility  of  its  having  been  yellow  fever  cannot  be  ex- 
cluded. That  disease  had  raged  in  the  South  in  1741-42,  and,  as  stated,  in  1743 
a  'bilious  plague'  which  was  probably  the  same  disease  prevailed  in  New 
York." 

Some  special  interest  attaches  to  the  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  of  1798.  It 
had  been  imported  before,  but  it  had  never  got  a  foothold,  due  without  doubt 
to  the  fact  that  the  patients  had  not  been  accompanied  by  the  mosquito  carrier. 
As  regards  this  outbreak  in  New  London,  I  will  quote  again  (Graves,"  pp. 
82-85)  •  "We  have  what  is  probably  a  fairly  accurate  contemporary  account 
of  this  outbreak  issued  in  pamphlet  form  by  Charles  Holt,  publisher  of  'The 
Bee,'  a  New  London  paper  of  that  period.  Furthermore,  the  'Medical  Repos- 
itory' of  New  York  for  the  year  1799  contains  three  letters  to  Dr.  Mitchell, 
the  editor,  on  the  subject,  tvro  from  the  Rev.  Henry  Channing,  and  one  from 
Dr.  Thomas  Coit,  both  residents  of  New  London.  The  first  victim  was  Capt. 
Elisha  Bingham,  who  kept  the  Union  Coffee  House  on  Bank  street,  in  the 
most  populous  part  of  the  city.  He  was  suddenly  taken  August  22  and  died 
after  four  days.  A  few  days  afterward  his  wife,  son  and  daughter  were  taken 
down,  and  all  died.  Others  in  the  neighborhood  were  soon  stricken  and  the 
disease  spread  rapidly.  Following  the  first  few  cases  'the  next  week  witnessed 
no  less  than  25  deaths.'  It  is  stated  by  Holt  that  within  a  small  space  there 
were  fifteen  houses  inhabited  by  ninety-two  persons  of  which  number  ninety 
were  infected  by  the  disease.  Thirty-three  of  this  number  died  and  two  only 
escaped  the  fever.  The  disease  remained  practically  confined  to  an  area 
extending  about  thirty  rods  north  and  the  same  distance  south  of  Capt. 
Bingham's  house,  and  twenty  rods  in  width.  According  to  Holt,  the  'mortality 
within  the  aforesaid  limits  was  equal  to  that  among  the  same  number  of 
inhabitants  in  any  part  of  Philadelphia  in  the  same  length  of  time.'  'It  is  not 
surprising  that  this  visitation  created  a  genuine  panic  in  the  town.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  inhabitants,  who  at  that  time  in  the  compact  part  of  the 
town  numbered  about  2,800,  removed  to  a  greater  or  less  distance.'  According 
to  Holt,  even  the  physicians,  except  for  two  who  were  ill,  left  the  city,  'except- 
ing Dr.  Samuel  li.  P.  Lee,  to  whose  lot  it  fell  alone  and  unassisted  to  combat 
the  fury  of  the  dreadful  pestilence.  And  his  conduct  on  the  occasion  was  such 
as  will  call  the  warmest  sentiment  of  gratitude  and  esteem  from  the  citizens 
of  New  London,  as  long  as  the  memory  of  the  Yellow  Fever  shall  exist  in 


372  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

their  minds.  He  cheerfully  sustained  the  arduous  task  of  visiting  and  supply- 
ing with  medicine  thirty  to  fifty  patients  daily,  notwithstanding  the  great 
fatigue  and  danger  of  infection  to  which  he  peculiarly  exposed  himself." 
Holt's  account  is  followed  by  Miss  Caulkins' :  "For  a  large  part  of  the  eight 
or  nine  weeks  that  the  epidemic  lasted  he  carried  the  whole  load.  He  received 
much  assistance,  however,  from  a  Air.  Gurdon  J.  Miller,  who,  though  not  a 
physician,  was  skilled  in  caring  for  the  sick,  which  he  did  without  compensa- 
tion. Moreover,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  time,  a  relative.  Dr.  James  Lee 
from  East  Lyme,  and  Dr.  Amos  Collins  of  Westerly,  Rhode  Island,  came  to 
his  aid.  Dr.  Lee  himself  had  an  attack  of  the  disease  near  the  end  of  the 
epidemic."  Holt  writes:  "In  the  discharge  of  the  important  duty  to  which  he 
so  nobly  devoted  himself,  he  was  seized  with  the  prevailing  disorder,  but 
after  a  struggle  of  a  few  days  was  happily  preserved  from  falling  a  sacrifice 
to  his  humanity."  He  received  the  public  thanks  of  the  Committee  of  Health 
of  the  Town,  which  had  been  especially  appointed  for  this  emergency  and 
which  was  untiring  and  most  efficient. 

"There  were,"  according  to  Holt,  "more  than  350  cases  and  ninety  deaths." 
Rev.  Mr.  Channing,  however,  gives  the  figures  as  follows:  "We  ascertained 
with  a  precision  to  be  relied  on  that  the  whole  number  of  persons  whose 
complaints  clearly  indicated  the  pestilential,  or,  as  it  is  called,  the  yellow 
fever,  did  not  exceed  246 ;  and  I  give  it  you  as  a  very  important  fact,  on  which 
you  may  rely,  that,  of  the  above  number,  231  cases  were  clearly  traced  to  the 
spot  where  the  sickness  commenced;  that  is,  the  patients  were  conversant, 
or  had  been  in  that  part  of  the  city  a  few  days  before  they  were  seized." 

Holt  says :  "Two  or  three  solitary  instances,  indeed,  occurred,  where  the 
disease  was  taken  from  an  infected  person,  without  any  previous  communi- 
cation with  the  contagious  spot.  General  Marvin,  an  eminent  physician  of 
Norwich,  was  attacked  while  attending  Mr.  Stewart,  at  Air.  Haughton's,  seven 
miles  from  the  city,  and  went  home  and  died.  But  no  other  person,  it  is 
believed,  was  taken  off  by  the  disorder  without  having  been  nursing  or  other- 
wise in  the  infected  spot ;  and  in  general  those  who  lived  at  only  a  few  rods 
distance,  and  avoided  any  nearer  approach,  were  as  secure  from  the  effects  of 
the  fever  as  though  they  had  removed  an  hundred  miles  in  the  country."  In 
1803  Yellow  fever  reached  New  London  again,  but  according  to  Miss  Caulkins' 
"The  disease  came  from  abroad  and  did  not  spread  among  the  citizens.  There 
were  only  very  few  cases." 

Of  the  dreaded  spotted  fever,  or  cerebro-spinal  meningitis,  which  was 
such  a  scourge  in  other  parts  of  Connecticut  in  1807  and  1823-25,  New  Lon- 
don county  seems  to  have  had  no  distinct  outbreak  of  any  importance.  There 
were  apparently  a  few  cases  in  Waterford  in  the  early  '30s,  which  were  seen 
or  attended  by  the  veteran  Dr.  North. 

In  1832,  at  the  time  of  the  great  epidemic  of  cholera  in  New  York,  when 
there  were,  according  to  Wendt.  2,030  cases,  with  852  deaths,  a  few  cases 
appeared  in  New  London,  as  in  New  Haven  and  Hartford.  The  "New  Lon- 
don Gazette."  August.  1832,  contains  the  following  note  about  it: 

"Cholera.— The  notice  published  in  the  papers  of  Boston  &  N.  Y.  of  the 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  ,  373 

Cholera  in  this  city,  has  a  tendency  to  alarm  our  friends  and  connections 
abroad,  &  to  interrupt  the  business  between  us  &  the  country.  The  cases 
which  occurred  were — Mrs.  Dart,  who  died  on  Winthrop's  Neck  and  was 
found  by  the  attending  physician  in  collapsed  state;  two  boys  who  had  eaten 
a  quantity  of  green  peaches,  and  died  before  medical  aid  could  reach  them, 
Mrs.  Briggs,  their  mother,  who  in  the  absence  of  her  nurse  and  in  a  high 
state  of  perspiration,  left  her  bed  and  went  to  an  open  window ;  and  Mrs. 
Pollus,  recently  from  N.  Y.,  who  had  taken  salts  the  day  before  her  death 
without  consulting  a  physician.  All  the  women  were  afflicted  with  a  diarrhoea 
several  days  previous  to  applying  for  medical  aid.  These  are  all  the  deaths 
that  have  occurred  for  14  days  past,  with  the  exception  of  one  person  who 
died  of  old  age.  No  case  of  the  cholera  now  exists  in  this  city  that  we  know 
of.  The  confidence  of  the  public  in  the  practice  of  our  physicians  remains 
undiminished;  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  when  medical  aid  is  applied  for 
in  the  early  stages  of  the  cholera,  it  will  be  successfully  combatted." 

Medical  Organization.^ — New  London  county,  and  especially  the  town  of 
Norwich,  is  distinguished  by  the  fact  that  here  was  made  the  first  move  in 
this  State  having  for  its  purpose  the  organization  of  the  profession  and  its 
recognition  by  the  State.  In  September,  1763,  eleven  physicians  ci  Norwich 
petitioned  the  General  Assembly  for  an  act  to  incorpoiate  the  physicians  of 
the  State  and  to  provide  for  examination  and  licensing  of  candidates  for 
practice.  This  memorial  was  signed  by  the  following:  Theophilus  Rogers, 
Joshua  Downer,  Cyril  Carpenter,  Php  Turner,  Obadiah  Kingsburj',  Joseph 
Perkins,  Physician,  Elisha  Tracy,  Moses  Morris,  John  Barker,  EHsha  Lord, 
Ebenezer  Robinson. 

The  petition  was  negatived,  but  the  attempt  was  no  less  significant.  Dr. 
Woodward"  well  says :  "The  presentation  of  that  unpretending  Norwich 
memorial  was  the  initiative  step  in  a  series  of  efforts  which  have  since 
resulted  in  the  permanent  establishment  of  many  flourishing  State  Associa- 
tions, and  within  a  few  years  of  the  National  Association,  which  has  con- 
tributed in  a  high  degree  to  purify  the  ranks,  elevate  the  aims,  and  make  a 
real  unit  and  fraternity  of  the  profession  in  America.  In  the  attempts  alluded 
to,  it  was  not  the  object  of  the  petitioners  to  secure  any  immunities  or  exclu- 
sive privileges  for  themselves,  but  to  protect  the  health  of  the  community  by 
additional  securities.  At  that  time  there  was  no  authority  in  the  State  legally 
qualified  to  confer  degrees  in  a  way  to  discriminate  the  man  of  solid  acquire- 
ments from  the  ignorant  pretender."  They  wished  "to  establish  a  standard 
of  education  by  making  a  respectable  amount  of  attainments  an  indis- 
pensable requisite,  to  the  acquirement  of  the  title,"  and  they  "asked  for  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  legally  authorized  to  examine  and  approve  can- 
didates if  found  qualified." 

The  rebufif  which  their  petition  received  at  the  hands  of  the  General 
Assembly  did  not  entirely  discourage  the  New  London  county  physicians. 
Even  if  they  could  not  gain  recognition  by  legislative  action,  they  could 
at  least  form  themselves  into  an  association  which  would  secure  to  them  at 
least  some  of  the  benefits  of  organization.  In  fact,  in  September,  1775,  a 
voluntary  society  was  formed  calling  itself  the  New  London  County  Medical 
Society.     Dr.  John  Barker  was  elected  as  first  president,  and  was  annually 


374  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

re-elected  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1791.  "It  is  said  that  at  the  earlier 
meetings,  which  were  held  monthly,  Dr.  Philip  Turner  gave  lectures  on 
military  surgery."  (Woodward.")  Further  than  that,  little  or  nothing  is 
known  of  the  doings  of  this  society.  It  is  beyond  doubt,  however,  that  it 
must  have  been  a  powerful  factor  both  in  elevating  the  professional  standards 
of  its  members  and  in  developing  an  esprit  de  corps  among  them. 

The  direct  offspring  and  close  successor  of  the  voluntary  organization 
just  mentioned  was  the  still  flourishing  New  London  County  Medical  Asso- 
ciation, which  came  into  being  with  the  incorporation  of  the  Connecticut 
Medical  Society  in  May,  1792,  the  year  following  Dr.  Barker's  death.  Nat- 
urally, much  interest  attaches  to  the  first  meeting.  The  original  record  reads 
as  follows: 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  New  London  County 
on  the  4th  Tuesday  of  Sept.  1792,  agreeable  to  the  act  of  the  General  Assembly 
passed  in  May  last  incorporating  a  Medical  Society  in  the  State  of  Con- 
necticut— 

"Voted :  B}-  a  majority  present,  that  the  following  gentlemen  be  members 
of  said  society  for  this  County,  viz." 

Then  follows  a  list  of  names  and  residences  beginning  with  "Doctr 
Theophilus  Rogers,  Norwich,"  forty-four  in  all.  There  is  a  question  whether 
there  may  not  be  a  duplication  in  the  names  of  John  Watrous  and  John  R. 
Watrous.  I  have  been  unable  to  learn  whether  or  not  there  were  two  men 
named  John  \\'atrous.  Dr.  Theophilus  Rogers  was  chosen  chairman,  and 
Dr.  Simon  Wolcott  clerk.  Unfortunately  the  members  present  were  not 
listed,  nor  was  the  place  of  meeting  stated,  though  it  was  probably  Norwich. 
Some  of  those  thus  voted  in  apparenth'  did  not  accept  their  election.  Three 
of  the  names  do  not  appear  again  in  the  records,  and  in  the  case  of  eight 
others  there  is  only  one  further  mention,  always  in  connection  with  the 
abatement  of  taxes. 

Unfortunately,  the  early  records  are  very  meager.  Not  until  181 1  do  we 
find  given  the  names  of  those  present  at  the  meetings  and  a  list  of  the 
members.  In  that  year  there  were  ten  present,  and  the  total  membership 
was  given  as  twenty-one.  The  next  year,  out  of  twenty-five  members  sixteen 
were  present  at  the  meeting,  a  large  proportion  considering  the  delays  and 
difficulties  of  travel  at  that  time.  It  is  probable  that  the  membership  and 
attendance  during  those  early  years  did  not  vary  greatly  from  the  fore- 
going figures. 

The  original  list  of  what  may  be  called  charter  members  contained  the 
names  of  several  men  of  mark  in  their  day,  not  only  eminent  in  their  pro- 
fession but  conspicuous  also  for  qualities  which  make  for  good  citizenship. 
Such  were  Dr.  Theophilus  Rogers  of  Norwich,  son  of  a  distinguished  physi- 
cian of  the  same  name,  leader  of  the  memorialists  of  1763,  and  incorporator 
of  the  State  Medical  Society ;  Drs.  Thomas  Coit  and  Simon  Wolcott  of  New 
London,  the  two  most  eminent  and  highly  regarded  physicians  in  the  south 
part  of  the  county;  Dr.  John  R.  Watrous  of  Colchester,  a  Revolutionary 
surgeon  of  note,  six  times  president  of  the  State  Society,  and  long  the  most 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  375 

prominent  practitioner  of  his  region ;  Dr.  Philip  Turner  of  Norwich,  one  of 
the  ablest  surgeons  of  his  time,  Surgeon  General  of  the  Eastern  Division  of 
the  Continental  army,  later  in  association  with  Dr.  Philemon  Tracy  carrying 
on  a  school  at  Norwich  for  training  young  men  as  physicians  and  surgeons ; 
and  the  two  Downers  of  Preston,  father  and  son,  who  rushed  to  the  aid  of  the 
v>?ounded  at  Fort  Griswold. 

During  the  first  twenty-five  years  following  its  organization  in  1792, 
there  were  admitted  to  its  membership  several  men  destined  later  to  become 
noted  in  the  exercise  of  their  art.  Among  these,  special  mention  may  be 
made  of  Drs.  Samuel  H.  P.  Lee  of  New  London,  William  Hyde  of  Stoning- 
ton,  Vine  Utley  of  East  Lyme,  George  and  Nathan  Tisdale  of  Norwich, 
Thomas  Miner  then  of  Lyme  afterward  of  Middletown,  Richard  Noyes  of 
Lyme,  Richard  P.  Tracy  of  Norwich,  Elisha  North,  Nathaniel  S.  Perkins, 
Archibald  Mercer  and  D\  er  T.  Brainerd  of  New  London. 

These  early  meetings  were  held  sometimes  in  Norwich,  "at  Mr.  Jesse 
Brown's,"  sometimes  in  New  London  "at  Miner's  Coffee  House,"  and  again 
"at  Mr.  Haughton's  Tavern  at  Montville,"  which  was  a  sort  of  half-way  house. 
Later  on,  the  meetings  were  held  alternately  in  Norwich  and  New  London, 
and  the  practice  has  continued  until  the  present  day. 

With  the  lapse  of  time  and  increase  of  population  the  membership  grad- 
ually increased  until  about  1830  from  thirty-eight  to  forty-one  members  were 
listed,  and  the  attendance  varied  from  eleven  or  twelve  to  eighteen  or  twenty. 
About  this  time,  too,  the  names  begin  to  appear  of  men  well  remembered  by 
the  older  members  of  the  present  time.  Of  these  may  be  mentioned  Drs.  R.  A. 
Manwaring,  I.  G.  Porter,  Ashbel  Woodward,  Mason  Manning  and  Elisha 
O'  er,  Jr.  During  the  '30s  the  list  of  members  ran  from  thirty-eight  to  fifty- 
nine,  with  an  attendance  of  eleven  to  twenty-one;  during  the  '40s,  from 
fifty-seven  to  sixty-five  were  taxed  as  members,  and  from  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  attended  the  meetings.  About  that  time  the  New  London  City  Hotel 
and  the  Merchants'  Hotel  in  Norwich  were  generally  the  meeting  places. 

The  association  has  alwa;  s  included  in  its  membership  most  of  the  rep- 
resentative medical  m_en  of  the  county.  During  its  long  and  honorable  past 
it  has  exercised  a  powerful  infiuence  for  good,  fostering  good  will  and  mutual 
respect  amon^r  its  members,  raising  and  maintaining  ever  higher  professional 
standards,  and  directly  and  indirectly  in  various  ways  working  for  the  general 
good  of  the  public. 

Early  Physicians. — The  shortcomings  of  the  following  account  none  can 
reali^^e  more  keenly  than  the  author.  With  the  scanty  leisure  at  his  dis- 
posal, he  has  found  it  impossible  at  this  time  to  attempt  a  complete  list  of 
the  form.er  medical  men  of  the  county,  or  to  give  more  than  sketchy  treatment 
of  lives  which  deserve  the  fullest  possible  biography.  If  the  other  towns  had 
been  as  fortunate  as  ancient  Norwich  in  having  an  Ashbel  Woodward,  there 


The  author  wishes  here  to  a:-kr'o\vledge  his  indebtedness  to  Mrs.  Elisha  E.  Rogers  of 
Norvric'n,  Miss  Celeste  Bush  of  Niantic,  and  Mr.  R.  B.  Vv'all  cf  Ncv/  London,  v/ho  have 
kindly  supplied  him  with  facts  of  interest  and  importance. 


376  NKW  LONDON  COUNTY 

would  be  little  left  for  the  late-coming  medical  annalist.  As  they  were  not 
so  favored,  it  is  hoped  that  even  this  cursory  and  inadequate  gathering  to- 
gether of  scattered  records  may  be  not  without  interest.* 

As  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Steiner  in  his  interesting  Historical  Address:  "Of 
the  three  classes  of  medical  practitioners — the  priest  physician,  the  regular 
physician,  and  the  empiric  or  charlatan — Connecticut  appears  to  have  pos- 
sessed them  all."  It  is  well  known  that  the  very  earliest  physicians  of  many 
parts  of  the  colony  often  belong  to  the  first  class.  This  was  not  true  in 
general  of  New  London  county,  and  as  for  its  first  physician,  he  must  cer- 
tainly be  placed  among  the  regular  physicians,  although  not  actually  holding 
the  medical  degree.  This  count}'  may  well  be  proud  of  the  distinction  of  its 
claim  to  John  Winthrop  the  Younger,  first  Governor  of  Connecticut,  as  its 
earliest  and  one  of  its  most  famous  physicians.  The  story  of  his  life  has  been 
told  so  often  that  only  an  outline  may  be  recalled  here.  Born  in  England, 
February  12th,  1605-06,  he  first  came  to  America  in  1630.  Founder  of  Say- 
brooke,  later  of  New  London,  he  resided  in  the  latter  town  until  in  1657  he 
became  the  first  Governor  of  the  Colony.  After  that  time  he  lived  chiefly  in 
Hartford.  He  died  in  Boston,  April  5th,  1676.  Having  a  marked  taste  for 
the  natural  sciences,  a  good  knowledge  of  medicine  for  his  time  was  among 
his  accomplishments,  which  his  generous  and  sympathetic  temperament  led 
him  to  practice  so  far  as  other  demands  upon  his  time  would  allow.  A  con- 
siderable amount  of  correspondence  and  other  data  are  extant  showing  the 
wide  range  of  his  interests,  and  the  high  degree  of  confidence  reposed  in  his 
knowledge  and  skill  by  all  classes  of  his  fellow  citizens. 

There  were  probably  others  practicing  the  healing  art  in  this  county 
contemporaneously  with  Winthrop,  but  we  know  next  to  nothing  about  them. 
Unless  made  prominent  by  some  other  activity,  as  in  church  or  politics,  their 
very  names  are  apt  to  be  forgotten  with  the  lapse  of  time.  For  several  gen- 
erations after  the  founding  of  the  colony  it  was  too  often  true,  as  Dr.  Wood- 
ward" (p.  167)  says,  that  "many  devoted  to  the  duties  of  their  calling  the 
undivided  energies  of  long  and  laborious  lives,  reaping  only  a  scanty  pecuni- 
ary recompense  for  the  present,  and  no  place  at  all  in  the  grateful  recollection 
of  posterity." 

As  regards  the  early  physicians  of  Norwich,  I  can  add  nothing  to  Dr. 
Woodward's  admirable  accounts,  and  almost  all  my  facts  are  drawn  from 
that  source.  We  are  indeed  fortunate  in  having  such  accurate  and  full 
biographies  written  by  one  skilled  in  historical  and  genealogical  research. 
Of  the  profession  as  a  whole  in  Norwich,  Dr.  Woodward  has  this  to  say: 
"The  medical  profession  in  ancient  Norwich  was  more  than  respectable;  was 
distinguished.  As  practitioners,  several  of  its  members  had  few  superiors 
on  the  continent.  As  reformers  of  abuses  and  peerless  advocates  of  salutary 
though  unpopular  changes,  they  held  a  place  in  the  foremost  rank."  Of  the 
following,  some  belonged  to  Norwich  proper,  others  to  that  part  which  was 
called  at  first  Norwich  West  Farms,  and  afterward  Franklin. 

Dr.  John  Olmstead  (or  Holmstead)  appears  to  have  been  the  very  first 
medical  man  of  the  place.    He  was  from  Saybrooke  in  1660  and  practiced  both 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  377 

in  the  town  proper  and  at  West  Farms.  "He  was  something  of  a  surgeon, 
and  is  said  to  have  had  considerable  skill  in  the  treatment  of  wounds,  particu- 
larly those  caused  by  the  bite  of  the  rattlesnake.  He  was  fond  of  frontier 
life,  and  enjoyed  to  a  high  degree  the  sports  of  the  chase."    He  died  in  1686. 

Dr.  Solomon  Tracy,  born  about  1651,  came  to  Norwich  with  his  father, 
Lieut.  Thomas  Tracy  and  family,  in  1660.  He  studied  with  the  last-named, 
and  practiced  both  in  Norwich  and  Franklin.  Miss  Caulkins'"  says:  "He 
must  be  remembered  among  the  solid  men  of  the  first  generation.  Very 
active  in  all  town  affairs."    He  died  July  9th,  1732. 

Dr.  Caleb  Bushnell,  born  May  26,  1679,  married  January  9th,  1699-1700, 
Ann  Leffingwell,  and  had  one  son  and  five  daughters.  "Captain  Bushnell,  as 
he  was  more  generally  called,  died  February  18,  1724-25,  having  accumulated 
by  sagacity  in  business  an  estate  of  about  £4000."  He  held  various  town 
offices. 

Dr.  David  Hartshorne  was  the  earliest  physician  to  actually  settle  in 
Franklin.  He  was  born  in  Reading,  Mass.,  in  1656,  and  moved  to  Franklin 
about  1700.  He  was  "highly  esteemed  as  a  physician,  and  was  a  leading  man 
both  in  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs."     He  died  November  3rd,  1738. 

Dr.  John  Sabin,  born  in  Pomfret,  1696,  early  removed  to  that  part  of 
Franklin  called  Portapaug,  where  he  built  up  a  large  practice.  He  died  March 
2nd,  1742. 

Dr.  Thomas  Worden  studied  with  Dr.  Hartshorne,  and  lived  near  the 
present  village  of  Baltic.     He  died  1739. 

Dr.  Theophilus  Rogers  was  born  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  October  4th,  1699.  He 
studied  in  Boston,  and  practiced  there  for  a  time.  Later  he  moved  and 
settled  in  Norwich  West  Farms,  where  he  resided  until  his  death,  September 
29,  1753.  "While  he  possessed  firmness  and  good  judgment  as  a  physician, 
his  natural  timidity  was  excessive.  It  is  said  that  he  built  his  house  very 
low  between  joints  in  order  to  avoid  danger  from  high  winds,  and  covered 
the  windows  with  wooden  shutters,  to  keep  out  the  glare  of  lightning.  When- 
ever called  abroad  in  the  night,  he  preferred  to  have  someone  accompany  him." 

Dr.  Joseph  Perkins  was  born  in  Norwich,  in  1704,  and  graduated  from 
Yale  at  the  age  of  23.  Dr.  Woodward  writes  of  him:  "Having  enjoyed  the 
best  medical  instruction  obtainable,  he  opened  an  ofifice  in  the  present  Lisbon. 
Possessed  of  brilliant  talents,  ardent  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  and  venture- 
some in  experiment,  he  became  distinguished  as  a  daring  surgeon.  Most 
of  the  capital  operations  of  the  circumjacent  country  were  perfermed  by 
his  hand.  .  .  .  Dr.  Perkins  was  also  a  man  of  piety,  patriotism  and 
benevolence."  He  married,  July,  1730,  Mary,  second  daughter  of  Dr.  Caleb 
Bushnell,  before  mentioned.  "His  eldest  son,  Dr.  Joseph,  became  an  eminent 
physician  in  his  native  town  ;  was  the  father  of  Dr.  Joseph  Perkins,  late  of 
Norwich,  and  Dr.  Elijah  Perkins  of  Philadelphia,  who  died  in  1806."  An- 
other son.  Dr.  Elisha  Perkins  of  Plainfield,  was  the  famous  inventor  of  the 
"metallic  tractors"  which  for  a  time  were  all  the  rasfe  both  here  and  in 
Europe.  The  first  Dr.  Perkins  died  July  7th,  1794.  He  was  a  memorialist 
of  1763. 


378  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Dr.  John  Barker  was  an  eminent  physician  of  Franklin,  born  in  Lebanon, 
1729.  Ke  studied  with  Dr.  Joseph  Perkins  and  began  practice  about  1750. 
"As  a  physician,  Dr.  Barker  enjoyed  an  enviable  popularity  both  with  the 
public  and  the  profession.  He  was  extensively  employed  in  consultation 
throughout  eastern  Connecticut,  and  great  deference  was  yielded  to  his  opin- 
ions. .  .  .  He  was  a  man  of  sparkling  wit,  quick  perceptions,  sound  common 
sense,  and,  not  least,  generous  heart.  It  was  to  these  strong  and  noble  traits 
of  character  that  he  owed  his  success,  for  he  was  not  graced  with  elegance 
of  person  or  polish  of  manner,  nor  did  his  pointed  repartees  derive  their  force 
from  any  fastidious  selection  of  words."  He  was  also  popular  as  a  medical 
teacher.  He  was  one  of  the  original  memorialists  of  1763,  and  was  the  presi- 
dent of  the  voluntary  New  London  County  Medical  Society  from  its  forma- 
tion in  1775  until  his  death,  June  13,  1791.  He  was  evidently  a  man  of  marked 
originality  and  great  force  of  character. 

Dr.  Obadiah  Kingsbury  was  a  student  of  Dr.  Barker.  He  was  born  in 
1735,  and  practiced  in  Franklin.  "Though  dying  in  1776  at  an  early  age,  he 
accumulated  by  his  industry  a  handsome  estate."  He  also  was  one  of  the 
memorialists  of  1763. 

Dr.  Nathaniel  Hyde,  another  student  of  Dr.  Barker,  was  born  in  Franklin 
in  1746,  and  located  in  his  native  town.  "He  was  a  judicious  practitioner, 
though  his  remedies  were  chiefly  of  a  domestic  character.  His  field  of  labor 
was  limited,  and  he  had  abundant  leisure,  which  was  devoted  to  reading  and 
meditation.  .  .  .  He  is  said  to  have  done  most  of  his  business  on  foot." 
He  never  married,  and  died  in  1832.  He  was  a  charter  member  of  the  New 
London  County  Medical  Association. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Ellis  was  born  in  Franklin,  in  1752;  "he  studied  with  Dr. 
Joshua  Downer  of  Preston,  and  settling  in  Franklin  acquired  an  extensive 
practice,  particularly  in  the  department  of  obstetrics."  He  died  in  1825.  He 
also  was  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association. 

Dr.  Elijah  Hartshorne,  another  native  of  Franklin,  was  born  in  1754. 
"He  studied  with  Dr.  Philip  Turner,  and  located  in  the  southern  part  of  his 
native  society.  Dr.  Hartshorne  was  a  careful  and  judicious  practitioner.  His 
field  was  a  circumscribed  one,  and  he  did  his  business  on  foot."  His  name 
appears  in  the  list  of  original  members  of  the  County  Medical  Association. 
He  died  in  1830. 

Dr.  Theophilus  Rogers,  Jr.,  was  born  about  1731,  married,  March  25th, 
1754,  Penelope  Jarvis  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  and  had  one  son  and  three  daugh- 
ters. He  studied  with  his  father,  and  established  himself  at  Bean  Hill.  "He 
was  noted  for  rigid  adherence  to  etiquette  and  nicety  in  matters  of  dress  and 
appearance.  Habitual  courtesy,  graceful  manners  and  skill  in  the  winsome 
plaj'  of  conversation  threw  a  charm  around  his  presence  which  was  felt  alike 
by  young  and  old."  He  was  very  active  during  the  Revolution,  and  a  member 
of  the  committee  of  safety.  He  headed  the  memorialists  of  1763,  was  an 
incorporator  of  the  State  Medical  Society,  a  charter  member  and  the  first 
chairman  of  the  County  Medical  Association.  In  1798  the  honorary  degree 
of  M.  D.  was  conferred  upon  him  by  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society. 

Dr.  Elihu  Marvin  was  born  in  Lyme,  about  1753,  a  graduate  of  Yale  in 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  379 

1773,  and  a  student  with  Dr.  Theophilus  Rogers,  Jr.,  of  Norwich,  whose 
daughter  he  later  married.  In  1777  he  entered  the  army  in  Colonel  Durkee's 
regiment  as  adjutant.  He  wintered  at  Valley  Forge,  and  won  a  high  reputa- 
tion as  a  brave  and  efficient  officer.  After  the  war  he  was  a  leader  in  reor- 
ganizing the  militia,  and,  rapidly  rising  in  rank,  was  appointed  brigadier- 
general  in  1793.  In  1798,  when  the  yellow  fever  broke  out  in  New  London, 
Dr.  Marvin  went  to  New  York  to  study  the  disease  in  order  to  qualify  him- 
self for  its  treatment.  Upon  his  return  he  was  called  to  attend  one  or  more 
patients  with  that  disease.  Holt  states  that  he  took  the  infection  "while 
attending  Mr.  Stewart  at  Mr.  Haughton's,  who  lived  at  Montville,"  and  died 
a  few  days  afterward.  To  quote  Dr.  Woodward  again:  "Like  many  noble 
brethren  in  a  calling  around  which  dangers  thicken  frightfully  when  'pesti- 
lence walketh  in  darkness  and  destruction  wasteth  at  noonday,'  he  offered  his 
life  in  the  devoted  endeavor  to  ward  off  the  blow  of  the  destroyer  from  others. 
His  death  sent  a  pang  through  the  community,  falling  crushingly  upon  an 
amiable  wife  and  six  small  children."  "Dr.  Dwight  Ripley,  an  intimate  and 
valued  friend,  was  with  him  much  in  his  brief  illness  of  four  days,  and,  with 
his  father-in-law,  Dr.  Rogers,  was  the  only  man  who  had  the  courage  to 
assist  in  preparing  his  body  for  burial."  (Salisbury,"  VIII,  p.  166.)  He  died 
September  13,  1798,  and  was  buried  in  Chelsea  Landing  burial  ground.  He 
was  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Wheat  was  born  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1709,  the  son  of 
Dr.  Samuel  Wheat.  He  studied  with  his  father,  and  when  twenty-one  years 
old  moved  to  Norwich,  where  he  lived  a  little  below  Bean  Hill.  He  had  many 
students,  and  a  practice  which  extended  over  thirty  years. 

Dr.  Elisha  Tracy  was  born  in  Franklin,  1712,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  1738, 
and  studied  medicine  with  Dr.  Theophilus  Rogers,  Sr.  "He  possessed  thor- 
ough classical  scholarship  and  was  well  versed  in  medical  literature."  He 
was  a  member  of  the  committee  which  in  1775  was  appointed  to  examine  all 
candidates  for  positions  of  surgeon  and  surgeon's  mate  in  the  army.  His 
activity  in  relation  to  small  pox  inoculation  has  already  been  noted.  He  was 
a  memorialist  of  1763.     He  died  in  1783,  "widely  beloved  and  lamented." 

Dr.  Philemon  Tracy,  son  of  the  preceding  by  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth 
Dorr  of  Lyme,  was  born  May  30,  1757.  "Having  enjoyed  the  professional 
teachings  of  his  father  and  Dr.  Philip  Turner,  he  practiced  medicine  m  his 
native  town  for  more  than  fifty-five  j'ears.  His  forte  lay  in  the  patient  and 
thorough  investigation  of  chronic  diseases,  especially  those  which,  from  their 
complications,  demanded  deep  research  and  accurate  discrimination.  Hon- 
orable as  a  counselor  and  faithful  as  a  physician,  his  services  were  extensively 
sought  both  at  home  and  abroad."  Mrs.  Sigourney"  has  left  a  word-picture 
of  him  which  deserves  quotation: 

"I  think  I  see  now  that  cautious  mentor-like  person,  so  grave  and  cour- 
teous, his  countenance  marked  with  deep  thought  and  kindness — Dr.  Phile- 
mon Tracy.  I  remember  him  among  my  benefactors.  From  his  father  he 
inherited  medical  skill  and,  monopolizing  the  principal  practice  of  the  city, 
yet  let  the  pressure  of  his  business  be  ever  so  great,  he  studied  a  new  case 
as  a  faithful   clergyman  dees  a  sermon.     He  happily  avoided  the  extremes 


380  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

which  my  Lord  Bacon  has  designated :  'Some  physicians  are  so  conformable 
to  the  humor  of  the  patient  that  they  press  not  the  true  treatment  of  the 
disease,  and  others  are  so  bound  by  rules  as  to  respect  not  sufficiently  his 
condition.'  But  the  practice  of  our  venerated  healer  was  to  possess  himself 
of  the  idiosyncrasies  of  constitution  as  well  as  of  the  symptoms  of  the 
disease,  to  administer  as  little  medicine  as  possible,  and  to  depend  much  on 
regimen  and  rousing  the  recuperative  powers  to  their  wonted  action.  His 
minute  questions  and  long  deliberation  inspired  confidence,  while  the  sen- 
tentious mode  of  delivering  his  prescriptions  gave  them  a  sort  of  oracular 
force." 

He  was  an  incorporator  of  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society,  an  original 
member  of  the  County  Medical  Association,  and  several  times  Fellow  of  the 
State  Society.  He  received  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  from  the  Con- 
necticut Medical  Society  in  1816.  He  was  blind  for  several  years  before  his 
death,  which  occurred  in  1837,  at  the  age  of  eighty. 

Dr.  Philip  Turner  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  the  medical 
profession  that  Eastern  Connecticut  has  ever  produced.  He  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1739-40.  He  studied  under  Dr.  Elisha  Tracy,  whose  daughter  Lucy 
he  afterward  married.  In  1760  he  was  appointed  assistant  surgeon  in  a  regi- 
ment at  Ticonderoga,  and  this  was  renewed  in  1761.  He  became  widely 
acquainted  and  popular  with  the  English  surgeons,  and  was  thus  "afforded 
opportunities  for  improvement  rarely  enjoyed  by  men  from  the  Colonies." 
He  continued  in  service  until  the  peace  of  1763,  when  he  returned  and  took 
up  private  practice  in  Norwich.  With  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution  he 
immediately  entered  the  army  again.  Dr.  Woodward  states  that  he  was  with 
the  Connecticut  troops  on  their  first  campaign  before  Boston.  "He  was  also 
with  the  army  in  New  York  in  1776."  In  1777  he  was  "appointed  Surgeon 
General  of  the  Eastern  Department  of  the  army,  which  position  he  ably  filled 
to  the  end  of  the  war.  He  then  returned  to  his  private  field  of  labor  where 
he  stood  unrivalled  as  an  operator."  "The  late  Dr.  Shippen  of  Philadelphia 
remarked  that  he  had  never  either  in  Europe  or  America  seen  an  operator 
that  excelled  him."  In  association  with  his  brother-in-law.  Dr.  Philemon 
Tracy,  he  instructed  many  students  and  lectured  upon  the  essential  medical 
branches.  Dr.  Turner  was  a  memorialist  of  1763,  an  incorporator  of  the 
State  Medical  Society,  and  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Asso- 
ciation. About  1800  he  moved  to  New  York,  and  soon  afterward  was 
appointed  surgeon  to  the  stafi^  of  the  United  States  army,  which  position  he 
held  imtil  his  death  in  the  spring  of  1815. 

Dr.  Richard  Tozer  was  a  student  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Wheat.  He  lost  his 
life  in  the  Louisburg  expedition  in  1745,  being  surgeon's  mate  under  Dr. 
Norman  Morrison. 

Dr.  Jonathan  Marsh  was  born  in  Wethersfield,  but  settled  in  Norwich, 
and  became  prominent  as  a  surgeon,  especially  in  bone  setting.  He  served 
as  surgeon  in  the  expedition  against  Crown  Point  in  1755-56.  He  died  in  1766. 
His  son  Jonathan,  born  1754,  was  also  somewhat  famous  in  the  treatment  of 
fractures.  He  was  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association  in 
1792.  and  died  April  i8th,  1798. 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  381 

Dr.  Elisha  Lord  was  born  in  Norwich,  August  10,  1726.  In  1755  he  was 
appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  surgeon's  mate  in  the  Crown  Point  expe- 
dition and  he  was  noted  as  of  Farmington.  In  1758  an  Elisha  Lord  went  as 
surgeon  in  the  Canadian  invasion,  and  is  then  said  to  be  of  Canterbury.  They 
were  probably  one  and  the  same  person.  In  1759-60  Dr.  Elisha  Lord  was 
surgeon  of  the  First  Regiment,  and  principal  director  of  hospital  stores.  He 
was  also  surgeon  of  the  First  Regiment  against  Cuba,  in  1762.  He  was  one 
of  the  memorialists  of  1763.    He  died  March  16,  1768. 

Dr.  Dominique  Touzain  is  mentioned  by  Miss  Caulkins  as  follows:  "On 
the  grave  stone  of  Colonel  John  Durkee  is  the  following  memorial :  'In  mem- 
ory of  Doctr.  Dominie  Touzain  who  was  lost  in  a  hurricane  in  March  1782 
in  ye  31st  year  of  his  age.' "  Additional  facts  have  been  kindly  supplied  to 
me  by  Mrs.  Elisha  E.  Rogers  of  Norwich.  He  was  a  French  surgeon  who 
came  from  Latrille,  France.  He  was  engaged  in  the  Revolutionary  War  with 
the  American  forces,  were  captured  by  the  British,  and  paroled  in  1779.  He 
subsequently  came  to  Norwich,  where  he  married  Anna,  daughter  of  Colonel 
John  Durkee.  He  appears  to  have  gone  as  surgeon  on  privateering  expedi- 
tions. The  date  on  the  stone  seems  to  be  incorrect,  as  he  was  known  to  be 
living  in  March,  1783,  and  was  then  about  to  set  out  on  a  voyage. 

Dr.  Richard  Proctor  Tracy,  son  of  Dr.  Philemon,  was  born  1791,  and  in 
1816  graduated  in  medicine  at  Yale.  He  lived  in  what  was  called  the  Dr. 
Tracy  house,  at  the  foot  of  Mediterranean  Lane,  as  had  his  father  before  him. 
He  joined  the  County  Medical  Association  about  1816,  and  continued  a  mem- 
ber until  his  death,  March  17,  1871.  Dr.  Tracy  was  noted  among  his  con- 
temporaries not  alone  for  his  professional  learning  and  skill,  his  kindly  and 
genial  disposition,  but  perhaps  even  more  for  his  wide  acquaintance  with  the 
best  in  English  literature  and  for  his  quaint  and  original  humor.  He  was 
affectionately  called  "Dr.  Dick."  He  never  married,  and  was  the  last  of  his 
family  to  live  in  the  old  homestead.  In  his  obituary  notice  Dr.  Woodward" 
(1871)  remarks:  "Thus  ends  in  Norwich  the  line  of  medical  succession  in  that 
family,  which  commencing  with  Dr.  Solomon,  fifth  son  of  Lieut.  Thomas, 
and  grand-uncle  of  Dr.  Elisha  Trac}%  continued  for  one  hundred  and  eighty 
years." 

Dr.  John  Turner,  oldest  son  of  Dr.  Philip,  was  born  in  1764,  and  died  in 
1837.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  not  only  of  great  professional  skill  but 
also  of  a  peculiarly  gracious  disposition.  "Not  to  mention  the  heart  ever 
welling  forth  sympathy  for  the  suffering,  the  tongue  that  spoke  no  words 
to  the  sick  but  words  of  consolation  or  cheer,  the  generous  bearing  of  Dr. 
Turner  toward  his  medical  brethren,  his  freedom  from  professional  jealousy, 
and  his  exertions  to  promote  their  welfare,  indicated  the  true  nobility  of  the 
man."    He  was  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association. 

Dr.  Gurdon  Lathrop  was  born  December  6th,  1767,  in  Norwich,  grad- 
uated from  Yale  in  1787,  and  married  Lucy  Ann,'  daughter  of  Dr.  Philip 
Turner.  He  became  a  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association  in  1793, 
and  died  in  1828. 

Dr.  Lemuel  Boswell  was  a  contemporary  of  Dr.  Marvin,  and  possessed 
an  extensive  practice  at  the  Landing. 


382  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Dr.  Worthington  Hooker,  born  I^Iarch  2nd,  1806,  a  graduate  of  Yale, 
1825,  M.  D.  Harvard,  1829,  was  an  active  member  of  the  County  Medical 
Association,  and  in  active  practice  in  Norwich  from  1830  to  1852.  In  the 
latter  j^ear  he  moved  to  New  Haven  to  accept  a  professorship  in  the  Yale 
Medical  School.  The  history  of  his  later  life  belongs  to  New  Haven.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  for  the  next  fifteen  years,  till  his  death,  November  6th,  1867. 
he  led  an  extremely  busy  life,  did  an  enormous  amount  of  writing  and  other 
work,  and  left  a  highly  honorable  record. 

Dr.  Ashbel  Bradford  Haile  was  born  at  Putney,  Vermont,  May  29,  1806. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  in  1835,  and  in  1842  received  his  medical  degree 
from  same  college.  Immediately  afterwards  he  settled  in  Norwich,  where, 
except  for  three  or  four  years  spent  in  California,  he  resided  until  his  death, 
March  8,  1880.  He  was  a  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association  from 
1842  imtil  his  death.  The  author  of  the  obituary  of  Dr.  Haile,  Dr.  L.  B. 
Almy'°  (18S0),  says  of  him:  "He  always  took  a  firm  stand  against  the 
numerous  forms  of  quackery,  and  was  steadfast  in  his  endeavors  to  keep  it 
down,  so  far  as  possible.  He  was  ...  a  liberal  Christian,  a  genial  gentle- 
man, devoted  husband  and  father,  and  a  successful,  well-informed,  hard  work- 
ing physician." 

Dr.  Benjamin  Fordyce  Barker  was  in  practice  in  Norwich,  and  a  member 
of  the  County  Medical  Association  from  1842  to  1849.  In  the  latter  year  he 
moved  to  New  York,  where  he  later  attained  a  national  reputation. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Butler  was  born  January  30th,  1764.  In  1787  he  issued  a 
circular  announcing  that  he  had  been  "regularly  educated  by  the  learned  Dr. 
Philip  Turner  in  the  sciences  of  Physics  and  Surgery."  He  afterward  moved 
and  settled  in  New  York  State.  His  name  is  among  the  charter  members  of 
the  County  Medical  Association.  At  the  time  of  the  yellow  fever  epidemic 
in  New  London,  the  "Connecticut  Gazette,"  issue  of  October  24th,  1798, 
published  among  the  list  of  donors  the  name  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Butler  as  con- 
tributing "ten  fat  sheep." 

Dr.  Ashbel  Woodward,  one  if  the  most  distinguished  physicians  of  eastern 
Connecticut,  was  born  in  Willington,  June  26th,  1804.  Having  taken  his 
medical  degree  at  Bowdoin  in  1829,  he  immediately  settled  in  Franklin,  and 
there  he  lived  and  worked  for  the  remainder  of  his  long  life.  He  joined  the 
County  and  State  Medical  Societies  in  1830,  was  always  greatly  interested 
in  their  welfare,  and  to  near  the  close  of  his  life  took  a  prominent  part  in  their 
meetings.  He  was  elected  chairman  of  the  County  Medical  Association  fre- 
quently, and  was  Fellov.-  of  the  State  Society  no  less  than  fifteen  times.  He 
was  also  president  of  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society  in  1859-60-61,  deliver- 
ing very  able  presidential  addresses,  "Historical  Account  of  the  Connecticut 
Medical  Society,"  "Medical  Ethics."  and  "Life."  In  the  Civil  War  he  was 
examining  surgeon  of  volunteers,  and  also  saw  service  at  the  front  as  surgeon 
of  the  26th  Connecticut.  The  following  is  taken  from  the  obituary  notice  by 
P.  C.  Woodward,  M.D."  (1886) : 

"As  a  physician  Dr.  Woodward  was  known  for  quickness  and  accuracy 
of  perception.    In  the  sickroom  nothing  escaped  his  attention.    He  was  espe- 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  383 

ciallv  successful  in  desperate  cases,  detecting  with  the  rapidity  of  intuition 
the  slightest  change  in  the  condition  of  the  patient  and  anticipating  every 
emergency." 

Notwithstanding  his  arduous  practice,  Dr.  Woodward  found  time 
to  follow  up  certain  extra-professional  hobbies  which  interested  him, 
and  considering  his  limited  time  did  a  remarkable  amount  of  writing.  Be- 
sides his  medical  papers,  he  wrote  biographies  and  memoirs,  and  a  treatise 
on  Wampum.  He  took  the  keenest  interest  in  local  history  and  genealogy, 
the  results  of  which  appear  in  his  "History  of  Franklin"  and  in  his  sketches 
of  early  Norwich  physicians.  The  latter  are  models  of  their  kind,  and  we 
medical  men  of  this  generation  owe  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to  Dr.  Woodward 
for  rescuing  from  oblivion  so.  many  of  these  old-time  predecessors  of  ours 
and  making  them  live  for  us  again.  He  possessed  the  joy  of  the  collector, 
too;  rare  books  and  pamphlets,  coins,  Indian  relics,  and  especially  town  and 
county  histories  and  genealogies  all  came  his  way. 

"During  his  long  terra  of  active  service  Dr.  Woodward  ministered  in 
sickness  to  at  least  six  successive  generations,  and  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  commanded  the  unqualified  confidence  of  his  clientage.  Often  appealed 
to  for  counsel  and  guidance,  he  was  never  known  to  discuss  or  even  mention 
a  matter  that  came  to  his  knowledge  in  the  sacredness  of  profesional  inter- 
course. Scrupulous  in  performing  the  work  of  each  day,  thorough  in  all 
undertakings,  intolerate  of  sham  and  pretense,  direct  in  aims  and  methods,  he 
pursued  uncompromisingly  the  paths  marked  out  by  his  conceptions  of  duty." 

There  were  not  a  few  other  medical  men  who  were  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time  before  i860  identified  with  Norwich,  and  it  is  a  matter  for  regret  that 
their  names  only  can  be  entered  here.  Some  of  these  were:  Drs.  Robert 
Bell,  George  and  Nathan  Tisdale,  William  P.  Eaton,  Chauncey  and  Reuben 
Burgess,  Eli^ha  Dyer,  Jr.,  Jonathan  W.  Brooks,  Benjamin  F.  Roath,  John  P, 
Fuller,  John  D.  Ford,  Jeremiah  King,  Benjamin  D.  Dean,  Horace  Thurston 
and  Daniel  F.  Gulliver. 

Of  the  other  towns  surrounding  Norwich,  Preston  is  conspicuous  as  the 
home  of  the  two  Downers.  Dr  Joshua  Downer  was  born  in  Norwich,  August 
6,  1735,  married,  February  25,  1762,  Hulda  Crary,  and  died  July  nth,  1795. 
He  was  one  of  the  memorialists  of  1763,  an  incorporator  of  the  Connecticut 
Medical  Society  and  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association. 
He  was  surgeon  of  the  8th  Regiment  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  assisted 
in  caring  for  the  wounded  at  Fort  Griswold  in  1781.  He  lived  in  Preston  City, 
in  a  large  old  house  at  the  north  end  of  the  village. 

His  son.  Dr.  Avery  Downer,  was  born  in  1763,  and  succeeded  his  father. 
He  was  present  and  assisted  his  father  in  ministering  to  the  wounded  after 
the  battle  of  Groton  Heights.  He  was  assistant  surgeon  in  1782.  An  original 
m.ember  of  the  County  Medical  Association,  he  always  took  a  prominent  part 
in  all  its  activities.  He  was  chosen  Fellow  of  the  State  Society  every  year 
from.  i8co  to  1816.  inclusive,  and  frequently  after  that.  He  w^as  also  elected 
chairmian  of  the  County  Medical  Association  no  less  than  twenty  times.  In 
1817  the  Connecticut  Medical   Society   granted   him  the  honorary  degree  of 


384  NEW  LONDOX  COUNTY 

W.  D.  He  was  the  last  survivor  of  the  battle  of  Fort  Griswold.  His  death 
occurred  in  1854  at  the  age  of  91. 

Dr.  Bishop  Tyler  was  a  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association  from 
181 1  to  1816  and  again  in  1842-43.  But  beyond  that  I  have  no  knowledge 
of  his  career. 

Dr.  Eleazer  Butler  Downing  was  born  in  Canterbury,  December  15, 
1786.  He  studied  with  Dr.  Fuller  of  Plainfield,  and  at  Philadelphia,  and 
began  practice  in  Preston  City  in  181 1.  He  joined  the  County  Medical  Asso- 
ciation in  1814,  was  elected  Fellow  a  number  of  times,  and  continued  a  mem- 
ber until  his  death,  January  20th,  1870.  He  was  surgeon  in  the  army  in  the 
War  of  1812.  At  one  time  he  seems  to  have  kept  a  tavern,  as  the  Medical 
Association  met  in  1838  "at  the  Inn  of  Doct.  Eleazer  Downing,  Preston." 
The  little  village  in  the  south  part  of  Preston  called  Poquetannock  had  its 
physicians  in  old  times.  Of  these  may  be  mentioned  Drs.  Benjamin  Harris, 
Thomas  W.  Gay,  Henry  C.  Randall,  and  Phineas  Hyde. 

Griswold  had  several  substantial  physicians  in  early  times,  among  them 
Dr.  Rufus  Smith,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Medical  Association  from  1813 
to  1830.  Dr.  Lucius  Tyler  lived  in  Jewett  City.  He  joined  the  Medical 
Society  in  1817  and  continued  a  member  until  his  death  in  1847.  He  was 
chosen  Fellow  of  the  State  Society  for  ten  of  those  thirty  years. 

Dr.  John  C.  Tibbitts  was  also  a  resident  of  Jewett  City.  He  joined  the 
Medical  Society  in  1824,  served  as  clerk  in  1828-29,  ^^i^  was  several  times 
chosen  Fellow  of  the  State  Society.    He  appears  to  have  moved  away  in  1841. 

In  the  town  of  Lisbon  one  of  the  leading  physicians  was  Dr.  Jedidiah 
Burnham.  He  was  born  in  Lisbon  in  1755,  "studied  with  Dr.  Joseph  Perkins, 
Sr.,  and  for  a  time  practiced  in  his  native  town.  Late  in  life  he  removed  to 
Ohio,  where  he  died  in  1840."  He  was  an  original  member  of  the  County 
Medical  Association. 

Dr.  Luther  Manning  was  born  in  Scotland,  Connecticut,  in  1748.  He 
settled  in  Lisbon,  and  continued  there  in  active  practice  until  near  the  time 
of  his  death,  May  7th,  1813.  According  to  the  "History  of  New  London 
County,"""  he  was  assistant  surgeon  in  the  Revolutionary  army,  and  was  on 
duty  at  New  London  when  the  town  was  burned,  September  6th,  1781.  He 
was  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Society,  continuing  until 
1812.  He  had  two  sons  who  became  physicians — Luther  in  Scotland,  Con- 
necticut, and  Mason,  whose  long  and  active  professional  life  was  mostly 
passed  at  old  Mystic.  Dr.  Vine  Smith  was  a  member  of  the  County  Medical 
Association  from  Lisbon  from  1824  till  1852. 

The  fine  old  town  of  Lebanon  was  seldom  without  one  or  more  solid 
practitioners.  Dr.  Joseph  Comstock  was  a  member  of  the  County  Medical 
Society  from  1826  to  1861,  and  was  several  times  chosen  chairman  and  Fellow 
of  the  State  Society. 

Dr.  Erastus  Osgood  joined  the  Medical  Society  in  1826,  and  continued 
a  member  until  1867.  The  latter  part  of  his  life  he  practiced  in  Norwich. 
Drs.  Charles  H.  Dutton  and  Elisha  Hutchinson  were  practitioners  in  this 
town  from  about  1828  until  1835. 

Dr.  Ralph  E.  Greene  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Daniel  Greene  of  Auburn,  Massa- 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  385 

chusetts,  and  was  born  September  15,  181 5.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Amherst 
in  1835.  After  completing  his  medical  studies  he  assisted  his  father  several 
years,  and  then  settled  in  Lebanon.  He  joined  the  Medical  Society  in  1844, 
continuing  a  member  until  his  death.  July  30,  1845,  he  married  Sarah  C. 
Button.    He  died  in  Lebanon,  May  20,  1874. 

At  Bozrah,  the  first  physician  would  appear  to  have  been  Dr.  Christopher 
Huntington.  He  was  born  in  Norwich  West  Farms,  and  was  "grandson  of 
Christopher  the  first  male  child  born  in  Norwich.  Dr.  Huntington  appears 
to  have  been  the  sole  physician  of  New  Concord  (Bozrah)  during  its  early 
history."     (Woodward.") 

A  later  and  better  known  physician  was  Dr.  John  Scott.  He  was  born  in 
Groton,  "studied  with  Dr.  Elisha  Tracy  and  settled  in  Bozrah.  He  possessed 
great  professional  merit,  taught  many  students,  and  died  at  an  advanced  age." 
He  died  February  3rd,  1834,  age  88. 

Of  Dr.  Earl  Knight,  not  much  is  known.  He  joined  the  County  Medical 
Society  in  1824  and  died  in  1832.  Something  seems  to  have  interfered  with 
his  success,  as  in  the  1830  record  he  is  noted  as  "bankrupt,"  and  his  dues 
abated. 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  was  born  in  Bozrah,  July  1st,  1805.  He  studied  with 
Drs.  Earl  Knight  and  Joseph  Peabody  of  Montville,  attended  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  1828,  and  graduated  from  Yale,  M.  D.,  in 
1829.  He  immediately  settled  in  Bozrah,  where  he  continued  to  practice 
during  the  rest  of  his  long  life.  He  married  in  1836  and  left  three  sons. 
He  had  students  at  various  times.  His  obituary  notice  by  Dr.  S.  L.  Sprague" 
(1879)  of  Norwich  ends  as  follows:  "Dr.  Johnson  was  sincere  and  earnest  in 
his  convictions  of  duty.  He  possessed  a  quick  perception  of  the  nature  of 
disease,  and  was  keen  in  diagnosis.  He  was  an  agreeable  man  to  meet  in 
consultation,  having  kindness  of  manner,  honesty  of  purpose,  good  judgement 
and  practical  common  sense." 

Colchester  has  been  distinguished  for  several  remarkable  physicians. 
The  Rev.  John  Bulkley,  son  of  the  Rev.  Gershom,  was  one  of  the  earliest, 
joining  the  two  professions  as  his  father  did  before  him.  His  son  John, 
though  more  conspicuous  in  the  law,  is  also  said  to  have  practiced  medicine 
to  some  extent. 

Dr.  John  Richard  Watrous  was  in  his  day  one  of  Connecticut's  shining 
lights  in  the  medical  profession,  as  well  as  one  of  Colchester's  most  distin- 
guished citizens.  He  was  born  in  Colchester,  March  i6th,  1754.  He  saw  mili- 
tary service  during  the  whole  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  was  one  of  the 
committee  of  eighteen  appointed  to  examine  candidates  for  the  positions  of 
surgeon  and  surgeon's  mate.  Such  experience  combined  with  marked  native 
ability  gave  him  a  lasting  prestige.  He  was  an  incorporator  of  the  State  Medi- 
cal Society,  of  which  he  was  president  from  1807  to  1812.  He  was  also  an 
original  member  of  the  County  Medical  Society,  served  as  clerk  twice,  was 
chairman  six  times,  and  was  repeatedly  elected  Fellow  of  the  State  Society. 
In  1804  he  received  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  from  the  Connecticut  Medical 
Society.  He  maintained  a  high  standing  in  the  community,  was  most  success- 
ful as  a  practitioner,  and  was  widely  consulted,  especially  as  a  surgeon.    Dr. 

N.L.— 1-25 


386  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Watrous  was  three  times  married.  He  died  December  13th,  1842.  A  full  and 
interesting  account  of  his  life  is  contained  in  Dr.  Russell's  article.' 

Dr.  Thomas  Skinner  was  an  original  member  of  the  County  Medical 
Society,  was  chosen  Fellow  in  1794,  and  had  his  tax  abated  in  1802.  A  little 
later  Drs.  Elijah  Butts  and  John  Billings  were  physicians  in  Colchester,  but 
of  them  little  is  thus  far  known. 

Dr.  Frederick  Morgan  was  born  in  Groton,  September  6,  1791.  He  was 
a  graduate  of  Yale  in  1813,  after  which  he  taught,  and  from  1816  to  1818  was 
a  tutor  in  Yale  College.  Having  in  the  meantime  been  reading  medicine 
with  Dr.  John  O.  Miner,  of  his  native  town,  he  was  able  to  secure  his  medical 
degree  from  Yale  in  1819.  He  settled  in  Colchester  in  1820,  where,  except 
for  the  years  1824  to  1831,  which  were  passed  in  Middletown  and  Ellington, 
he  lived  and  practiced  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  early  married  the 
daughter  of  Dr.  John  R.  Watrous,  and  they  had  six  sons  and  two  daughters. 

Dr.  Morgan  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  welfare  of  his  home  town,  was 
trustee  of  Bacon  Academy  for  many  years,  and  deacon  of  the  church  for 
about  forty  years.  He  was  a  member  of  the  County  Medical  Society  from 
1822  to  1876.  "Dr.  Morgan  brought  to  his  profession  a  high  order  of 
intellect,  a  sympathetic  heart,  and  a  conscientious  fidelity  to  duty.  He 
preserved  throughout  life  the  studious  habits  formed  in  his  }outh,  and  these, 
aided  by  a  tenacious  memory,  gave  him  a  well-stored  and  highly  cultured 
mind.  .  .  .  His  patients  felt  that  with  professional  skill  he  brought  to 
them  a  heart  tenderly  alive  to  suffering,  and  his  kindly  sympathetic  face 
brought  sunshine  to  many  a  darkened  home.  The  poor  had  always  a  friend 
in  him.  He  gave  them  freely  his  professional  skill,  and  often  went  beyond 
his  means  in  supplying  them  with  food  and  raiment."  (Woodward,"  1878.) 
He  was  also  greatly  interested  in  antiquarian  lore,  and  was  "the  standard 
authority  on  all  matters  of  local  history."    He  died  June  iSth,  1877. 

Other  physicians  of  Colchester  were  Drs.  Ezekial  W.  Parsons,  Jonathan 
Dodge,  and  James  R.  Dow. 

Dr.  Melancthon  Storrs  may  be  mentioned  here,  although  his  life  belongs 
mostly  to  Hartford  county.  New  London  county,  however,  claims  the  first 
decade.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  in  1852,  and  M.  D.  '53.  Soon  afterward 
he  settled  in  Colchester,  where  he  continued  to  practice  until  the  breaking 
out  of  the  Civil  War.  In  1861  he  was  appointed  surgeon  to  the  8th  Con- 
necticut Regiment,  and  continued  in  service  until  July,  1865,  being  staff 
surgeon  during  the  last  year.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he  settled  in  Hartford, 
which  continued  his  field  of  work  until  his  death  in  1900.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  New  London  County  Medical  Association  from  1856  to  1865. 

At  Montville,  two  physicians  are  listed  among  the  original  members  of 
the  County  Medical  Association — Dr.  David  H.  Jewett  and  Dr.  George 
Rogers.  The  former  has  already  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  inocula- 
tion for  small  pox.  Dr.  Joseph  Peabody  was  a  prominent  physician  of  the 
town  for  many  years,  and  the  latter  part  of  his  life  was  spent  in  Norwich. 
Other  physicians  who  practiced  here  in  the  '30s  and  '40s  were  Ephraim 
Fellows,  Henry  C.  Beardsley,  and  Jedediah  R.  Gay. 

Dr.  John  C.  Bolles  is  well  remembered  by  the  older  medical  men  now 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  387 

livinc:.  He  was  a  g^raduate  of  the  Vermont  Medical  College  in  1840.  He 
joined  the  County  Medical  Association  in  1841,  was  clerk  in  '46,  several  times 
elected  Fellow  of  the  State  Society,  but  withdrew  in  1861.  In  1885  he 
rejoined  the  society  and  continued  a  member  until  his  death. 

New  London. — In  the  early  part  of  its  history,  following  John  Winthrop, 
New  London  had  as  a  resident  one  who  later  acquired  much  reputation  as 
physician  and  surgeon.  The  Rev.  Gershom  Bulkley  became  the  second 
mmister  of  the  First  Church  of  New  London  in  1661,  and  while  he  was 
never  regularly  settled  or  ordained,  he  remained  and  preached  until  1667, 
when  he  removed  to  Wethersfield.  There  is  no  evidence  that  he  practiced 
medicine  while  living  in  New  London.  He  must,  however,  have  taken  it 
up  not  long  afterward,  for  by  1675  he  had  obtained  sufficient  experience  and 
reputation  as  a  practitioner  to  be  sent  out  as  surgeon  of  the  force  against 
the  Narragansett  Indians.  He  was  largely  employed  in  that  capacity  during 
the  Narragansett  War.  In  October,  1686,  he  was  licensed  to  practice  by 
the  General  Court  (Russell,'  p.  94).  He  was  a  man  of  extensive  learning, 
marked  ability  and  force  of  character,  and  exercised  great  influence  in  the 
colons-.  Two  of  his  .«ons.  while  far  less  distinguished  than  their  father,  were 
well  known  as  practitioners  of  medicine. 

According  to  Miss  Caulkins'  (p.  231)  the  first  notice  of  any  physician  in 
New  London  was  in  1662.  On  May  19th  that  year  a  man  named  Robert 
Chanell  "died  suddenly,  having  been  well  in  the  morning  and  at  2  o'clock 
P.  M.  he  lay  dead.  The  verdict  of  the  jury  was  rendered  in  accordance  with 
the  opinion  of  'John  North,  professor  of  Physick,'  who  being  summoned  on 
the  occasion,  declared  that  his  death  was  occasioned  by  unseasonable  bathing 
after  inordinate  drinking."  She  states  also  that  "he  was  probably  the  Dr. 
John  North  that  died  in  Wethersfield  in  1682." 

The  New  London  County  Court  Records  contain  the  following:  "1687. 
.  .  .  This  court  grants  liberty  unto  Mr.  Charles  Bulkley  to  practice  physic 
in  this  county,  and  grants  him  license  according  to  what  power  is  in  them 
to  do."  He  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Gershom,  born  in  New  London,  in  1663. 
He  settled  in  his  native  town  but  died  young,  leaving  one  child.  "His  father 
speaks  of  him  as  deceased  in  an  instrument  dated  Dec.  2nd,  1709."  (Russell,* 
p.  115).  His  daughter  Hannah  married,  May  i8th,  1709,  Richard  Goodrill 
of  Glastonbury. 

Joshua  Hempstead  in  his  diary.  May  6th,  1715,  notes:  "Doctr  Stephen- 
son Died,"  and  the  next  day:  "I  was  at  home  &  made  ye  Docters  Coffin  & 
yn  at  his  funeral."  Nothing  further  is  known  of  him.  In  1716,  Hempstead's 
wife  became  very  ill  following  child-birth  on  July  30th.  August  4th  he 
writes:  "mv  wife  very  111  Mr  Winthrop  came  to  visit  her  in  ye  Evening  used 
means  for  her  Relief  &  Mr  Miller  Let  her  blood  in.  Sund  5  fair.  My  Dear 
Wife  Died  about  half  an  hour  before  Sunrise."  A  few  days  later,  two  of 
his  children  were  taken  very  ill,  Joshua  with  "a  Sore  Throat  &  fevar,"  Rashel 
with  "a  feaver  &  flux."  Joshua  was  taken  Extream  bad  about  Midnight.  I 
called  Mr  Jer  Miller  ye  Schoolmaster  and  physition  who  readyly  gat  up 
Came  to  See  him  &  tarried  al  night  using  Such  Means  as  he  thought  most 
proper."    The  next  day,  however,  he  records:  "my  Dutyful  Son  Joshua  Died 


■?8S  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 


o 


about  Noon  like  a  Lamb  being  17  years  &  20  days  old  a  patren  of  patience." 

"Mr.  Jer  Miller"  was  Jeremiah  Miller,  graduate  of  Yale  in  1709.  He 
"studied  medicine,  and  in  1711  settled  in  New  London."  (Dexter,"  Vol.  I, 
pp.  83-84.)  Miss  Caulkins'  (p.  399)  states  that  "he  was  engaged  as  principal 
of  the  grammar  school  in  New  London,  in  1714,  and  continued  in  that  situa- 
tion for  twelve  or  fifteen  years."  March  2nd,  1717-18,  he  married  Mary, 
second  daughter  of  Governor  Gurdon  Saltonstall.  He  was  one  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  the  town  and  held  several  positions  of  much  responsibility.  From 
1732  to  '47  he  was  Representative  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  was  justice 
of  the  peace  for  many  years.  According  to  Dexter,"  in  1737  he  was  "appointed 
na%-al  officer  of  the  port  of  New  London,  being  the  only  port  for  the  entry 
and  clearing  of  large  vessels  in  the  colony — and  so  continued  until  his  death." 
He  died  March  15th,  1756.  On  the  previous  day  Hempstead  makes  the 
following  entrj' :  "Mr  Miller  was  taken  this  aftern  about  2  Clock  with  Con- 
vulsion fitts.  I  went  to  visit  him  in  the  Evening,  he  had  10  or  12  they  Say 
after  Sunset  &  vomited  but  then  Soon  Lay  Still  in  a  Doze  &  So  I  left  him 
as  in  a  Slumber  his  family  &  friends  around  him." 

Of  Dr.  Charles  Acourt,  Hempstead  on  February  28th,  1726-27,  notes 
that  he  had  to  "assist  on  an  Arbitration  between  Majr  Merriot  &  Doctr 
Accourt  &c."  Again  on  March  9th :  "I  was  on  the  Arbitration  between  Majr 
Merriot  &  Doctor  Accourts  Administrators."  The  only  other  item  about 
him  that  I  have  found  is  contained  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Governor  and 
Council  in  New  London,  July  28th,  1721,  which  is  quoted  by  Dr.  Russell' 
(p.  222).  The  sheriff  having  a  warrant  from  the  Governor  "to  search  for 
and  seize  whatsoever  he  might  find  imported  into  the  Colony  out  of  the 
piratical  ship  ...  he  had  taken  a  negro  boy,  supposed  to  be  about  12  or 
13  years  old,  at  Dr.  Accourts  in  Say  Brook."  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  R.  B. 
Wall  that  in  the  New  London  land  records  there  is  a  deed  by  Samuel  Richards 
to  Charles  Accourt,  1739-40,  which  proves  that  his  house  stood  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Mill  Brook,  "northward  from  the  bridge,"  making  it  probable 
that  it  was  the  old  Bulkley-Hallam  house.  This  Accourt  bought  several 
other  pieces  of  property,  and  as  there  is  no  record  that  he  sold  anything,  he 
probably  lived  in  New  London  until  his  death.  Hempstead's  note  would 
imply  that  Dr.  Accourt  had  died  in  1727.  Whether  the  Accourt  of  the  land 
records  was  of  his  family  does  not  appear. 

Hempstead  records  the  death  of  Dr.  Giles  Goddard,  January  31st,  1757, 
"aged  between  50  &  60.  He  hath  been  decrepid  with  the  Gout  &c  Several  years 
&  of  late  Confined  to  his  house  &  Bed."  Dr.  Goddard  was  one  of  the  sub- 
scribers Tune  6th,  1725,  contributing  "for  the  building  and  erecting  a  Church 
for  the  service  of  Almighty  God,  according  to  the  Liturgie  of  the  Church  of 
England  as  by  law  established."  (Caulkins,*  p.  440.)  Dr.  Goddard  was  of 
Groton,  but  soon  after  settled  in  New  London.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
vestrymen  of  the  Episcopal  Society,  elected  in  1732.  He  seems  to  have  had 
a  high  reputation  for  professional  skill  and  to  have  enjoyed  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  his  fellow-townsmen.  Hempstead  frequently  records  his  pro- 
fessional activities  from  1737  on.     He  resided  on  Bradley  street  in  1743. 

Dr.  Guy  Palmes  was  contemporary  with  Dr.  Goddard.    Hempstead  make.s 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  389 

the  following  entry,  March  27th,  1757:  "Dr.  Guy  Palmes  Died  before  noon 
aged  near  50  I  suppose  with  ye  Dropsie."  He  was  apparently  the  son  of 
Andrew  Palmes  of  New  London,  who  was  baptized  October  ist,  1682,  and 
died  in  1721,  and  grandson  of  Major  Edward  Palmes.  Dr.  Palmes  was  also 
"an  early  and  important  member  of  the  Episcopal  Society"  (Caulkins,'  p. 
444).  He  is  mentioned  several  times  by  Hempstead,  and  it  is  evident  that 
he  stood  high  in  the  profession.    In  1745  he  was  living  on  Bank  street. 

Dr.  Thomas  Coit,  St.,  came  a  little  later  than  the  two  last  mentioned. 
Hempstead's  first  mention  of  him  is  on  December  9,  1752.  Miss  Caulkins' 
(p.  476)  says  of  this  period :  "Dr  Thomas  Coit  was  the  principal  physician. 
He  had  nearly  the  whole  medical  practice  of  the  town  for  forty  years  com- 
mencing soon  after  1750."  I  gather  the  following  from  "The  Coit  Family," 
by  Rev.  F.  W.  Chapman."  He  was  the  only  child  of  Thomas  and  Mary 
Prentiss  Coit,  born  August  15th,  1725.  He  "settled  in  his  native  place  as  a 
physician  and  spent  there  an  honorable  life  .  .  .  dying  June  5th,  1811, 
aged  86."  His  first  wife  was  Abigail  Richards,  by  whom  he  had  four  children. 
He  married  for  his  second  wife,  Mary  Gardiner,  by  whom  he  had  nine  children. 
He  is  buried  in  Cedar  Grove  Cemetery,  New  London,  his  monument  bearing 
the  following  epitaph :  "He  was  ever  ready  to  pour  Wine  and  Oil,  into  the 
wounds  of  the  afflicted ;  and  regulated  his  actions  by  the  strictest  rules  of 
Piety ;  and  died  in  the  full  belief  of  the  redeeming  love  of  his  Lord  and 
Master." 

Dr.  Coit  lived  in  the  old  Coit  homestead,  which  stood  where  the  Armory 
now  is.  He  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  prominent  medical  men  of 
his  day  in  eastern  Connecticut,  and  had  a  long  and  honorable  career.  He  was 
one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  State  Medical  Society,  and  an  original  member 
of  the  New  London  Medical  County  Association.  In  the  Colonial  Records 
of  Connecticut  he  is  down  for  medical  services  in  1773.  (Russell,'  p.  146.) 
At  the  time  of  the  yellow  fever  epidemic  he  was  active  in  attending  patients 
during  the  first  fortnight  of  the  outbreak,  and  until  he  himself  was  taken  ill 
with  the  disease. 

In  Miss  Caulkins'  (p.  478)  we  find  that  about  1764  "Dr.  Thomas  Moffatt 
was  controller  of  the  customs,  and  esteemed  also  as  a  skillful  physician,  in 
which  line  he  had  some  practice."  He  was  an  Englishman,  and  a  friend  of 
Rev.  Mather  Byles,  who  in  1768  suddenly  severed  his  connection  with  the 
old  First  Church,  of  which  he  had  been  minister  for  over  ten  years.  Mr. 
Byles  conveyed  his  house  to  Dr.  Moffatt  as  security  for  repayment  to  the 
church  of  £240  which  had  been  given  him  upon  settlement.  Just  when  Dr. 
Moffatt  left  New  London  is  not  known,  but  about  1777  it  was  represented 
that  he  had  "withdrawn  from  America  in  a  hostile  spirit  and  had  since  been 
in  arms  against  her"  (Caulkins,'  p.  511),  so  his  goods  were  confiscated.  He 
lived  for  a  time  in  the  Byles  house,  north  corner  of  Main  and  Douglas  streets. 

A  Dr.  Samuel  Brown  lived  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Bank  and  Golden 
streets  about  1781.  He  married  the  daughter  of  Alexander  McNeil,  a  baker, 
who  owned  much  real  estate  which  was  sold  about  1782  by  the  doctor  and 
his  wife.     No  further  information  about  him  has  thus  far  come  to  light. 

Another  prominent  physician  of  the  latter  part  of  the  i8th  century  was 


390  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Dr.  Simon  Wolcott.  He  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Alexander  and  Mary  Richards 
Wolcott  of  Windsor,  and  was  born  about  1748.  He  lived  first  on  the  west 
side  of  Bank  street,  north  of  Pearl,  later  on  Coit  street,  and  finally  in  the 
Giles  Mumford  house  on  Federal  street,  lately  the  parish  house  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church.  He  married  (first)  Lucy  Rogers,  (second)  Charlotte  (Wood- 
bridge)  Mumford  having  three  children  by  each  wife.  He  was  surgeon 
of  the  6th  Regiment  in  1775.  Just  before  the  attack  on  New  London,  Sep- 
tember 6th,  1781,  he  had  gone  out  on  a  fishing  trip  off  Montauk  Point  with 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Shaw.  Having  discovered  the  British  fleet,  it  was  too  late 
for  them  to  return  to  New  London  Harbor,  so  they  "were  obliged  to  run  into 
Poquonnuck  Creek  to  escape  capture"  (Caulkins,'  p.  548).  Dr.  Wolcott  at- 
tended for  five  months  Captain  Adam  Shapley,  who  was  wounded  in  the 
battle  of  Groton  Heights.  His  bill  against  the  State  of  Connecticut  for  his 
professional  services  is  extant,  the  charge  being  at  the  rate  of  a  shilling  a 
visit.  He  was  clerk  of  the  voluntary  New  London  County  Medical  Society 
which  preceded  the  present  organization,  was  an  incorporator  of  the  Con- 
necticut Medical  Society,  and  an  original  member  and  first  clerk  of  the 
present  New  London  County  Medical  Association.  He  was  also  frequently 
elected  chairman  of  the  later  organization,  and  Fellow  of  the  State  Society. 
He  was  one  of  the  foremost  medical  men  of  his  time  and  was  highly  esteemed 
both  in  and  out  of  the  profession.  Dr.  Wolcott  owned  considerable  land  in 
the  vicinity  of  Ocean  avenue,  and  was  a  thrifty  and  prosperous  citizen.  He 
died  April  7th,  1809,  aged  61. 

Dr.  Cornelius  Coningham  was  born  in  Ireland,  in  1746.  When  he  settled 
in  New  London  is  not  known.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  he  was 
for  a  time  surgeon  at  Fort  Trumbull.    He  died  in  New  London,  in  1820. 

Dr.  Samuel  H.  P.  Lee  has  been  already  mentioned  in  connection  with 
the  yellow  fever  epidemic.  He  was  born  probably  in  Lyme,  August  5th,  1772. 
He  was  named  for  Maj.  Gen.  Samuel  Holden  Parsons,  a  cousin  of  his  father 
and  his  commanding  officer.  Dr.  Lee's  father,  Capt.  Ezra  Lee,  won  distinc- 
tion in  the  Revolutionary  War  as  the  navigator  of  the  first  submarine  used 
in  warfare,  David  Bushnell's  "Turtle."  His  great-great-grandfather  was 
Thomas  Lee  (2d),  who  lived  in  the  old  Lee  house  in  East  Lyme.  His  mother 
was  Deborah  Mather  of  Lyme.  Lie  married  Elizabeth  Sullivan,  daughter  of 
the  purser  of  the  British  frigate  "Cygnet,"  which  lay  in  New  London  Harbor. 
They  had  a  son,  Dr.  Henry  Sullivan  Lee,  who  graduated  at  Yale  in  1823. 
Dr.  Lee  had  an  unusual  number  of  medical  relatives — Drs.  John  Lee  of 
Sharon,  John  Allen  Lee  of  Clinton,  New  York.  Tully  Lee  of  Hartford,  Daniel 
Lee  of  Lyme,  James  Lee  of  New  London,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  he 
may  have  studied  with  one  or  other  of  these  men.  Part  of  his  education, 
however,  was  obtained  in  New  York,  for  with  the  record  of  his  election  to 
membership  in  the  New  London  County  Association  in  September,  1793, 
it  is  stated  that  he  had  "produced  letters  testifying  his  having  acquired  suffi- 
cient knowledge  to  practice  physic  and  surgery  from  Doctor  Bailey  of  New 
York  and  sundry  other  gentlemen."  Dr.  Lee  was  an  active  member  of  the 
County  Medical  Association,  having  been  clerk  in  1811-12-13,  and  Fellow  of 
the  State  Society  from  1806  to  '14,  inclusive,  and  again  in  1816  and  '19.    He 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  391 

was  the  author  of  two  prize  essays  delivered  before  the  Convention  of  the 
State  Society,  one  in  1794  on  "Autumnal  Bilious  Fever,"  and  the  other  in 
1796  on  "Cynanchc  Tonsillaris."  In  1795  he  was  operating-  a  small  pox  inocu- 
lation hospital.  In  addition  to  his  medical  practice,  Dr.  Lee  carried  on  an 
extensive  drug  business.  This  was  located  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Main 
and  State  streets,  and  at  one  time  also  on  Bank  street,  near  where  the  Hotel 
Royal  is  now.  He  later  lived  in  a  house  on  Federal  street,  which  had  pre- 
viously been  the  residence  of  Dr.  Wolcott,  and  it  was  in  this  house  that  he 
manufactured  his  famous  New  London  Bilious  Pills.  Reliable  tradition  has 
it  that  at  the  time  of  the  yellow  fever  he  was  driven  about  the  city  night 
and  day  by  his  faithful  black,  visiting  the  sick,  often  falling  asleep  between 
the  calls  and  sometimes  in  the  patient's  house,  so  overcome  was  he  from  loss 
of  sleep.  It  is  told  of  him  also  that  in  sleighing  times  he  would  drive  about 
the  city  in  a  fine  sleigh  drawn  by  two  white  horses.  He  was  a  successful 
business  man,  and  bought  and  sold  much  real  estate.  Dr.  Lee  was  also  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  whaling  industry  in  New  London,  having  fitted  out 
the  "Dauphin"  in  1804,  and  the  "Leonidas"  in  i8c6.  He  moved  to  New  York 
in  1838,  where  he  died  January  7th,  1863,  at  the  age  of  91.  He  is  buried  in 
Cedar  Grove  Cemetery. 

Dr.  James  Lee  was  a  cousin  of  the  last  named.  He  practiced  first  at  the 
"head  of  the  river,"  East  Lyme.  At  the  time  of  the  yellow  fever  epidemic  he 
assisted  Dr.  S.  H.  P.  Lee.  Later  he  moved  to  New  London,  where  he  built 
what  was  called  the  Brandegee  house  on  State  street,  standing  on  the  site 
of  the  present  Crocker  House.  In  1812  he  sold  out  his  New  London  realty 
and  moved  to  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  He  was  an  original  member  of  the 
County  Medical  Association,  which  he  served  twice  as  clerk  and  which  twice 
elected  him  Fellow  of  the  State  Society.  He  was  dismissed  at  his  own  request 
in  1805. 

Dr.  Samuel  Seabiiry,  Jr.,  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Seabury,  Yale  1748, 
Bishop  of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut.  He  lived  at  first  in  Groton,  later  in 
New  London,  on  State  street,  in  what  was  subsequently  Dr.  Braincrd's  house. 
He  was  an  original  member  of  the  New  London  Coimty  Medical  Association. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  29,  in  1795,  and  was  buried  in  the  Second  Burying 
Ground. 

Dr.  Thomas  Coit,  Jr.,  the  son  of  Dr.  Thomas  and  Mary  Gardiner  Coit 
already  referred  to,  was  born  in  New  London,  April  2nd,  1767,  married  No- 
vember 29th,  1789,  Mary  Wanton  Saltonstall,  and  settled  in  his  native  place. 
He  probably  studied  with  his  father,  and  for  some  time  practiced  "along  side 
of  his  father,  and  therefore  distinguished  from  him  as  young  Dr.  Coit." 
(Chapman.")  Dr.  Coit  had  eight  children,  the  last  born  October  28th,  1808. 
He  was  an  original  member  of  the  New  London  County  Medical  Association 
in  1792,  and  always  took  an  active  part  in  its  doings,  serving  as  clerk  1806-10, 
and  chosen  Fellow  of  the  State  Society  for  eleven  years  in  succession,  1803 
to  '13.  He  was  last  returned  as  a  member  in  1839.  About  1795  he  operated 
a  small  pox  inoculation  hospital  in  competition  with  Dr.  Lee.  He  received 
the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  from  the  Connecticut  Medical  Societv  in  1817. 
About  1825  Dr.  Coit  lived   in  a  house  on  the  corner  of  Main  and   Douglas 


392  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

streets.  Dr.  Coit  was  a  worthy  successor  of  his  father,  a  credit  to  his  family 
name,  and  left  a  highly  honorable  record  both  as  a  medical  man  and  as  a 
leading  citizen. 

Of  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Rawson,  our  present  knowledge  is  confined  to  the 
mention  of  him  in  connection  with  the  yellow  fever,  the  fact  of  his  advertising 
later  "Dr.  Rawson's  Worm  Powders,  Prepared  by  Thomas  H.  Rawson,  mem- 
ber of  the  Conn.  Med.  Soc,"  and  finally  the  record  (Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc. 
1792-1829,  Reprint,  1884,  p.  112)  of  his  expulsion  from  the  Connecticut  Medical 
Society,  October  17th,  1804,  on  account  of  his  failure  to  answer  to  the  charge 
of  "making  and  vending  nostrums,  contrary  to  the  bye-laws  of  the  institution, 
and  the  expressed  principles  thereof."  He  belonged  originally  to  Hartford 
county. 

Dr.  Winthrop  Saltonstall,  born  in  New  London,  Februarj-  10,  1775,  was 
a  graduate  of  Yale  in  1793,  and  in  1796  had  the  degree  of  M.  D.  from  Columbia. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  never  practiced  in  his  native  town.  Accord- 
ing to  Dexter'*  (Vol.  V.,  p.  83),  he  settled  and  engaged  in  practice  at  Port 
of  Spain  in  Trinidad,  and  "he  died  there  after  a  short  and  painful  illness  from 
yellow  fever  June  20  (or  27),  1802,  in  his  28th  year.    He  was  unmarried." 

Drs.  Luke  and  Charles  Douglas  were  brothers,  sons  of  Richard  Douglas, 
a  Revolutionary  War  veteran.  They  were  born  respectively  in  1788  and 
1792.  It  does  not  appear  that  either  of  them  practiced  medicine  in  New 
London.  Charles  had  formerly  been  a  practitioner  in  Washington,  D.  C,  but 
later  returned  to  New  London  and  lived  in  the  family  home  on  Green  street. 
The  old  gambrel-roofed  house  is  still  standing,  and  now  occupied  by  the  office 
of  Mr.  William  S.  Chappell.  During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  Dr.  Douglas 
held  many  political  offices. 

Of  Dr.  Joseph  Woodbridge  Lee  I  only  know  that  he  died  young,  at  the 
age  of  31,  October  loth,  1795. 

Dr.  William  Graham  was  listed  among  the  original  members  of  the 
County  Medical  Association,  was  again  elected  in  1793,  but  in  1810  he  was 
readmitted,  having  been  "out  of  the  State  some  years."  Nothing  further  is 
known  of  him. 

During  the  early  years  of  the  19th  century,  several  men  settled  in  New 
London  who  later  became  eminent  in  the  profession.  One  of  the  most  noted 
of  these  was  Dr.  Elisha  North,  who  moved  here  from  Goshen,  Connecticut, 
and  settled  in  1812.  He  was  already  at  that  time  a  man  of  wide  reputation 
in  the  State.  Only  a  summary  of  his  life  can  be  given  here ;  indeed,  little  or 
nothing  could  be  added  to  the  admirable  biographies  already  published,  viz., 
the  earlier  one  by  H.  Carrington  Bolton,"  and  especially  the  full  and  admir- 
able one  by  Dr.  Walter  R.  Steiner."  Dr.  North  was  born  at  Goshen,  January 
8th,  1770.  He  studied  at  first  with  Dr.  Lemuel  Hopkins  of  Hartford,  and 
later  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in  1793-94,  but  did  not  graduate.  He 
practiced  in  Goshen  until  1812.  He  was  already  famous  for  the  fact  that  he 
was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  enthusiastic  advocates  of  vaccination  in  this 
State,  and  for  his  study  of  the  spotted  fever  outbreak  in  1807-8.  At  the  time 
of  his  advent  in  New  London  he  was  in  the  prime  of  life  and  at  once  took 
a  high  rank  in  the  profession  and  in  the  community.    Immediately  after  sef- 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN 


jyo 


tling  in  New  London  Dr.  North  joined  the  County  Medical  Association,  and 
continued  an  active  and  honored  member  until  his  death.  He  served  as  clerk 
in  1814-15,  and  was  several  times  chosen  chairman  and  Fellow  of  the  Con- 
necticut ]\Iedical  Society.  In  1813  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society  granted 
him  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  Dr.  North  is  famous  also  for  his  eye 
infirmary,  the  first  in  this  country,  which  he  opened  in  1817.  He  writes  of  it 
as  follows :  "We  had  attended  to  eye  patients  before  that  time,  but  it  occurred 
to  us  then,  that  we  might  multiply  our  cases  of  that  description  and  thereby 
increase  our  knowledge  by  advertising  the  public  in  regard  to  an  eye  institu- 
tion. This  was  done  and  we  succeeded :  although  not  to  our  wishes  in  a 
pecuniary  view  of  the  case.  Our  success,  or  exertions,  probably  hastened  in 
this  country  the  establishment  of  larger  and  better  eye  infirmaries  (i.e.,  for 
larger  cities)."    (Steiner,"  p.  11.) 

Dr.  North  was  the  author  of  a  considerable  number  of  works  both  medical 
and  philosophical.  Among  them  are  his  books  on  spotted  fever  already  men- 
tioned, "Outlines  of  the  Science  of  Life,"  "Rights  of  Anatomists  Vindicated," 
"The  Pilgrim's  Progress  in  Phrenology,"  and  several  technical  medical 
papers.  "Besides  being  known  as  a  writer  and  man  of  mark.  North  is  also 
distinguished  for  having  invented  four  forgotten  surgical  instruments — an 
improved  trephine,  an  eye  speculum,  a  trocar,  and  a  new  form  of  catheter. 
The  first  two  were  exhibited  before  the  State  Medical  Society  in  1821,  and 
the  last  two  had  the  indorsement  of  four  New  London  physicians."  (Steiner," 
p.  19.)  Bolton""  states  that  in  his  practice  he  "exhibited  a  remarkable  degree 
of  caution,  deliberation,  and  careful  reflection.  When  concerned  with  the 
health  and  comfort,  and  we  may  add  the  moral  welfare  of  his  patients  or 
friends,  he  exercised  a  conscientious  care  and  thoughtfulness  that  preserved 
him  from  unsafe  enthusiasm  or  dangerous  and  extreme  views.  As  a  con- 
sulting physician  he  enjoyed  the  confidence  and  friendship  of  his  brethren, 
and  was  much  valued  for  his  philosophical  habits  of  mind  in  cases  of  difficulty 
and  uncertainty."  About  1824  he  lived  for  a  time  on  a  farm  in  East  Lyme, 
and  while  there  became  interested  in  peat  as  fuel.  The  "American  Journal 
of  Science"  for  1826  contains  an  article  upon  the  subject  from  his  pen.  Dr. 
North  was  a  man  of  quaint  and  original  humor,  and  several  anecdotes  are 
extant  illustrating  this  phase  of  his  character.  He  died  in  New  London, 
December  29th,  1843.  A  large  granite  monument  marks  his  grave  in  Cedar 
Grove  Cemetery. 

Dr.  Samuel  Huntting  was  a  contemporary  of  Dr.  North,  but  died  August 
4th,  1818,  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  42.     Little  is  known  of  his  life. 

Dr.  Archibald  Mercer  appeared  in  New  London  the  same  year  as  Dr. 
North.  He  was  born  in  Millstone,  New  Jersey,  December  ist,  1788,  graduated 
from  Princeton,  1807,  and  studied  medicine  in  Philadelphia.  Dr.  Mercer 
joined  the  Medical  Society  in  1812  and  continued  an  active  member  until 
his  death.  He  received  the  degree  of  M.  D.  from  Yale  in  1827.  Dr.  Mercer 
lived  on  State  street,  in  a  house  which  was  some  years  ago  bought  by  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  He  was  a  man  of  marked  ability,  stood  well  in  the  profession, 
and  taught  many  students.  One  of  New  London's  streets  was  opened  by  and 
named  for  him.     Dr.  Mercer  died  October  3rd,  1850. 


^^4  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Dr.  Dyer  Throop  Erainerd  was  another  member  of  this  group.  He  was 
born  in  New  London,  June  loth,  1790,  of  a  conspicuous  and  honorable  Con- 
necticut family,  descended  in  direct  line  from  Daniel  Brainerd  of  Haddam. 
Dr.  Braincrd's  father,  Hon.  Jeremiah  Gates  Brainerd,  Yale  1779,  was  a  dis- 
tinguished lawyer  and  for  many  years  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State.  Dr.  Brainerd  was  named  for  Gen.  Dyer  Throop  of  East  Haddam, 
with  whom  his  father  studied  law.  The  poet-lawyer,  J.  G.  C.  Brainerd,  was 
a  brother  of  the  doctor,  as  was  William  F.  Brainerd,  an  eminent  lawyer  of 
New  London.  Dr.  Brainerd  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  in  1810,  and  received  the 
honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  in  1827  from  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society.  He 
settled  in  New  London  in  1813  and  lived  in  an  old  house  on  the  north  side 
of  State  street,  between  Union  and  Main.  He  became  a  member  of  the 
County  Medical  Association  in  1813,  served  as  clerk  in  1816-17,  and  was 
chosen  Fellow  of  the  State  Society  seventeen  times.  In  the  winter  of  1819-20 
Dr.  Brainerd  attended  a  course  of  medical  lectures  in  New  York.  He  was 
military  surgeon  at  New  London  in  1813-14,  and  from  1814  onward  for  many 
years  was  surgeon  in  the  Third  Brigade  (Brainard").  He  was  also  for  a 
long  period  U.  S.  Marine  Hospital  Surgeon  at  this  port.  Dr.  Brainerd  was 
a  man  of  mark,  enjoying  in  high  degree  the  respect  and  friendship  of  his 
fellow  practitionists,  and  the  esteem  of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  was  also  a 
prominent  Mason,  Brainerd  Lodge  having  been  named  for  him.  Dr.  Brainerd 
never  married,  and  died  February  6,  1863. 

The  fourth  member  of  this  eminent  group  was  a  scion  of  a  family  long 
distinguished  in  the  annals  of  Eastern  Connecticut.  Dr.  Nathaniel  Shaw 
Perkins  was  born  in  Nev/  London,  Februarj'-  nth,  1792,  son  of  Elias  and 
Lucretia  Woodbridge  Perkins,  and  grandson  of  Dr.  Joseph  Perkins  of  Nor- 
wich. After  attending  successively  Dr.  Dow's  School  in  New  London,  the 
Bacon  and  Plainfield  academies,  he  entered  Yale,  from  which  he  graduated 
in  1812.  He  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  with  Dr.  Elisha  North  of  this 
city,  but  after  a  short  time  he  went  to  Philadelphia  and  completed  his  medical 
education  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Directly  thereafter  he  settled 
in  New  London  in  181 5,  where  he  remained  in  constant  practice  for  fifty-five 
years.  Dr.  Perkins  early  joined  the  County  Medical  Association,  served  the 
Count;,-  Association  as  clerk  for  a  short  time,  and  was  frequently  elected  a 
delesrate  to  the  State  Society.  He  was  licensed  to  practice  by  the  Connecticut 
Medical  Society,  and  received  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  from  Yale  in  1829. 
Dr.  Perkins  married  Ellen  Richards  of  New  London,  and  was  the  father  of 
fourteen  children,  of  whom  onlv  six  survived  him.  Pie  died  May  25th,  1870, 
at  the  Shaw  Mansion  on  Bank  street,  now  the  home  of  the  New  London 
County  Historical  Society.  Dr.  Perkins  was  truly  the  well-beloved  physician, 
and  his  death  was  mourned  by  all,  rich  and  poor  alike.  Much  might  be 
written  of  his  charming  personality,  and  his  benevolent  and  sympathetic 
disposition,  which  endeared  him  to  a  very  wide  circle  not  only  of  the  wealthy 
and  cultivated  but  as  well  of  the  obscure  and  needy  who  called  upon  him  for 
help.  An  obituary  notice  by  Dr.  Isaac  G.  Porter  was  read  before  the  New 
London  County  Medical  Association  and  published  in  the  State  Proceedings 
for  1871.    By  natural  tastes  and  thorough  training.  Dr.  Perkins  was  well  fitted 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  395 

for  his  calling,  and  he  left  behind  an  enviable  record  of  long,  arduous  and 
faithful  professional  achievement. 

Dr.  James  Rogers  was  born  in  Waterford  in  1785,  and  his  early  practice 
was  carried  on  in  that  town.  He  later  moved  into  New  London,  so  that,  as 
he  said,  he  would  not  have  to  take  all  his  pay  in  vegetables.  He  died  in 
1851,  and  was  buried  with  Masonic  honors  in  Cedar  Grove  Cemetery,  in  land 
which  had  formerly  been  a  part  of  the  farm  belonging  to  his  wife.  Miss 
Caulkins'  wrote  of  him :  "He  was  noted  for  his  benevolent  medical  parctice. 
He  was  peculiarly  the  physician  of  the  poor." 

Dr.  James  Morgan  was  born  in  England,  March  20th,  1802,  but  early  came 
to  this  country  with  his  parents,  who  settled  in  New  London.  He  began  the 
study  of  medicine  with  Dr.  Mercer.  His  medical  education  seems  to  have 
been  unusually  thorough,  as  he  is  said  to  have  attended  lectures  in  Boston, 
London,  and  Philadelphia,  graduating  at  the  last-named  place  in  1828.  He 
settled  in  New  London  in  1829.  Directly  afterwards  he  joined  the  County 
Medical  Association,  of  which  he  continued  a  member  until  his  death.  He 
was  several  times  elected  Fellow  of  the  State  Society.  In  1831  he  married 
Miss  Charlotte  Mercer,  daughter  of  his  preceptor.  Dr.  Morgan  had  a  high 
reputation  as  a  practitioner  and  especially  as  a  surgeon.  He  was  also  regarded 
as  unusually  skilled  in  the  treatment  of  diseases  of  the  eye.  The  obituary 
notice  of  him  by  Dr.  L.  S.  Paddock"  (i860)  has  this  high  praise  of  Dr.  Morgan 
as  a  man :  "He  was  always  the  friend  of  the  poor ;  his  charities  were  liberal 
in  proportion  to  his  means,  and  his  gratuitous  professional  practice  was  large. 
No  man  was  in  so  humble  circumstances  as  to  be  refused  the  Doctor's  services, 
and  the  expectation  of  pecuniary  compensation  was  not  a  motive  in  his 
friendly  attentions  and  intercourse  with  the  sick.  As  a  man  he  was  warm- 
hearted and  sincere,  generous  and  upright  in  all  his  dealings."  He  died 
July  3rd,  1859. 

Dr.  Robert  Alexander  Manwaring  is  well  remembered  by  scores  of  people 
yet  living.  He  was  born  in  New  London,  August  2nd,  1811,  son  of  Chris- 
topher and  Mary  Wolcott  Manwaring,  and  died  in  the  same  house,  on  Man- 
waring  liill,  September  ist,  1890.  He  began  the  study  of  medicine  with  Dr. 
Mercer  in  1829,  after  which  he  completed  his  medical  training  at  the  Harvard 
Medical  School.  His  first  practice  was  in  Gales  Ferry,  where  he  settled  about 
1832,  and  where  he  remained  until  1841.  After  an  interval  of  several  years 
passed  in  New  London,  he  removed  to  Greenville,  in  Norwich,  where  he 
practiced  until  1850.  He  then  returned  to  New  London,  where  he  lived  and 
worked  continuously  until  his  death.  May  15th,  1845,  he  married  Ellen, 
daughter  of  Hon.  Noyes  Barber  of  Groton.  During  his  whole  professional 
life  Dr.  Manwaring  was  a  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association.  An 
obituary  notice"  (1891)  by  Dr.  A.  W.  Nelson  contains  the  following:  "A  busy 
man,  he  was  seen  early  and  late  about  town  among  the  rich  and  the  poor 
with  equal  readiness  and  acceptance.  .  .  .  No  man  has  ever  been  more 
pleasantly  known  among  all  classes,  for  he  had  a  just  and  proper  mixture 
of  Vv'it  and  humor,  so  that  his  words  were  always  fresh  and  effective  and  not 
too  many.  .  .  .  His  understanding  of  general  and  professional  subjects  was 
wide.     He  was  of  the  speculative  and  reflective  type,  turning  over  things  in 


396  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

his  own  mind,  not  especially  seeking  originality,  but  a  safe  conclusion  by 
the  way  of  sound  common  sense."  Dr.  Manwaring's  only  son,  Wolcott  Barber 
Manwaring,  left  at  his  death  in  1905  the  homestead  and  all  the  other  property 
of  his  estate  to  found  a  children's  hospital  in  memory  of  his  parents,  to  be 
called  the  Manwaring  Memorial  Hospital.  The  fund  is  accumulating  in  the 
hands  of  the  trustees  until  such  time  as  it  is  deemed  adequate  to  carry  out 
the  purpose  of  the  donor. 

Another  eminent  New  London  practitioner  whose  professional  life  ex- 
tended over  several  generations  and  whose  memory  is  cherished  by  many 
still  living,  was  Dr.  Isaac  G.  Porter.  He  was  born  in  Waterbury,  Connecticut, 
June  29th,  1806,  but  spent  most  ot  his  early  life  in  Farmington,  where  his 
father  was  minister  of  the  church.  He  graduated  from  Yale  in  1826,  after 
which  he  taught  for  several  years,  partly  in  New  London  as  principal  of  the 
Young  Ladies'  Academy.  His  medical  studies  were  pursued  at  first  in  New 
Haven,  later  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  graduated  in  1833. 
Immediately  thereafter  he  settled  in  New  London,  which  from  ♦hat  time  on 
was  the  field  of  his  life  work.  Dr.  Porter  joined  the  County  Medical  Asso- 
ciation that  same  year,  and  always  took  a  verj"-  active  part  and  a  keen  interest 
in  its  meetings  and  other  activities.  He  served  as  clerk  in  1835-36,  was  many 
times  chosen  chairman,  and  Fellow  of  the  State  Society.  In  1866  he  was 
vice-president  of  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society,  on  which  occasion  he  read 
an  address  entitled :  "Medico-Chirurgical  Lessons  of  the  War."  His  presi- 
dential address  delivered  before  the  State  Convention  the  following  year  was 
upon  "Self-restorative  power."  From  1861  to  '67  he  was  post  surgeon  at 
Fort  Trumbull,  where  he  was  busily  occupied  not  only  in  the  care  of  hospital 
patients  but  also  in  the  examination  of  recruits,  thousands  of  whom  passed 
through  his  hands.  Dr.  Porter  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  medical  journals, 
especially  the  "American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences."  In  fact,  he  has 
probably  to  his  credit  a  longer  list  of  published  articles  than  any  other  New 
London  physician  before  or  since. 

Dr.  Porter  married,  September  12th,  1833,  Williamina  Davis  of  Phila- 
delphia. Their  only  son.  Captain  Edward  Leighton  Porter,  a  promising  law- 
yer in  Norwich,  was  killed  in  action  at  Winchester,  Virginia,  June  15th,  1863. 
Dr.  Porter  himself  died  of  old  age,  April  30th,  1892.  Dr.  Porter  loved  his 
life-work,  and  his  enthusiasm  for  the  never  ending  study  of  medicine  held  out 
to  the  end.  The  scientific  side  especially  appealed  to  him.  Keen  perceptions, 
close  study  of  his  cases,  logical  deductions,  and  cautious  treatment,  combined 
to  build  up  for  him  a  large  and  permanent  success. 

Dr.  Seth  Smith  was  a  son  of  Dr.  John  L.  Smith  of  East  Lyme,  where  he 
was  born  October  14th,  1823.  He  graduated  in  medicine  at  the  New  York 
University  in  1845,  after  which  he  established  himself  in  this  city.  He  early 
entered  the  drug  business,  which  he  carried  on  in  addition  to  the  practice  of 
medicine  until  1871,  but  chronic  ill  health  was  a  more  or  less  constant  handi- 
cap in  the  pursuit  of  his  chosen  calling.  He  left  a  substantial  estate  for  the 
establishment  of  an  old  ladies'  home  to  be  called  "The  Smith  Memorial  Home." 
This  benevolent  institution  has  nov.'  been  in  operation  for  many  years,  and 
has  brought  peace  and  comfort  into  the  closing  years  of  the  lives  of  many  old 


EARLY  A4EDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  ,v-y; 

and  homeless  or  dependent  gentlewomen.  Dr.  Smith  died  April  i8,  1878,  in 
the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  a  member  of  the  County  Medical 
Association,  serving  as  clerk  for  several  years  until  1858,  when  he  was  dis- 
missed at  his  own  request.  He  rejoined  the  society  in  1876,  and  thereafter 
was  a  member  until  his  death. 

There  were  other  New  London  physicians  who  are  deserving  of  more 
adequate  notice,  but  whose  names  only  may  be  mentioned  here.  Such  were: 
Drs.  Abel  T.  Sizcr,  Charles  C.  Cone,  David  P.  Francis,  Archibald  T.  Douglas, 
Albert  Hobron,  Frank  D.  Brandegee,  Robert  McCurdy  Lord,  Henry  Potter, 
and  William  W.  Miner,  all  practicing  in  New  London  before  i860. 

Passing  now  to  the  towns  of  Groton  and  Stonington,  one  of  the  earliest 
physicians  of  whom  we  have  record  was  Dr.  Dudley  Woodbridge.  He  was 
a  member  of  an  eminent  family,  remembered  especially  for  its  able  clergy- 
men. Dr.  Woodbridge  was  born  April  21st,  1705,  probably  in  Center  Groton, 
son  of  the  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge,  first  minister  of  the  town  of  Groton. 
He  married,  in  1739,  Sarah  Sheldon  of  Hartford.  He  was  a  graduate  o{ 
Harvard  College  in  1724.  He  began  practice  in  Old  Mystic,  but  a  few  years 
later  he  bought  the  "Whitehall  Farm"  in  that  part  of  the  town  of  Stonington 
just  east  of  Mystic  river.  He  erected  and  occupied  until  his  death  the  house 
which  still  stands  there.  Joshua  Hempstead  refers  to  him  in  his  professional 
capacity  several  times  from  1729  on,  having  called  him  to  attend  members 
of  his  own  family  living  in  Stonington.  His  last  note  referring  to  him  occurs 
in  1755.  The  Colonial  Records  for  1771  note  Dr.  Dudley  Woodbridge  of 
Groton  as  one  of  a  committee.     He  died  October  4th,  1790  (Wheeler,"  p. 

693-4)- 

Dr.  Charles  Phelps  of  Stonington,  born  September  22,  1732,  "came  from 
Hebron,  Connecticut,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  Stonington,  now  North  Ston- 
ington, where  he  built  him  a  residence  near  the  foot  of  Cosatuc  Hill.  He 
afterwards  removed  to  Stonington,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
He  was  one  of  the  leading  physicians  of  his  day  and  generation,  holding  the 
office  of  judge  of  probate  of  the  town  and  other  offices"  (Wheeler,"  p.  538). 
He  married  (first)  Hannah  Denison,  and  (second)  Sally  Swan,  having  in 
all  fifteen  children.  Dr.  Phelps  was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  Con- 
necticut Medical  Societj',  and  an  original  member  of  the  New  London  Medical 
Association.  His  name  does  not  appear  again,  however,  in  the  records  of 
that  organization,  probably  on  account  of  his  advanced  age. 

Drs.  William  Hyde,  father  and  son,  were  for  many  years  leading  prac- 
titioners in  Stonington.  The  former  was  born  July  21st,  1783.  The  son  was 
born  in  Stonington,  October  27th,  1808.  He  graduated  from  the  Harvard 
Medical  School  in  1830,  and  practiced  in  Stonington  until  his  death,  Sep- 
tember 25th,  1873.  His  reputation  was  high,  and  he  had  an  extensive  con- 
sultation practice.  Both  father  and  son  were  members  of  the  County  Medical 
Association  during  nearly  the  whole  of  their  professional  lives. 

Dr.  William  Robinson  joined  the  County  Medical  Association  in  1827, 
but  the  next  year  he  is  noted  as  exempt  from  taxation  by  reason  of  being 
over  sixty  years  of  age.  In  1828  he  received  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D. 
from  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society.     He  died  about  1847. 


398  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Dr.  George  E.  Palmer  was  born  in  Stonington,  April  15th,  1803.  He 
began  tlie  studj-  of  medicine  and  graduated  from  the  college  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons  in  New  York  in  1825.  He  immediately  settled  in  his  native  town, 
where  he  practiced  for  over  forty  years.  He  was  twice  married  and  left 
numerous  descendants.  As  a  physician  he  was  held  in  high  regard  by  the 
public,  and  was  popular  with  his  fellow  practitioners.  He  was  moreover 
prominent  as  a  citizen,  being  seventeen  times  elected  to  the  office  of  warden 
of  the  borough.  He  joined  the  County  Medical  Association  in  1828,  was 
chosen  chairman  in  1856  and  '67,  and  was  elected  Fellow  of  the  State  Society 
upwards  of  ten  times.    He  died  May  8th,  1868. 

Dr.  Thomas  P.  Wattles  was  a  practitioner  in  North  Stonington.  He  also 
entered  the  County  Medical  Association  in  1828,  and  was  clerk  in  1832-33-34. 
He  died  in  1854,  age  54  years. 

Dr.  John  Owen  Miner  was  for  many  years  a  much  esteemed  physician 
of  Groton.  He  was  born  January  gtli,  1762,  and  lived  to  an  advanced  age. 
He  dwelt  near  the  old  village  of  Center  Groton.  He  was  an  original  member 
of  the  New  London  County  Medical  Association,  and  seemed  to  have  been 
very  faithful  in  attendance  and  to  have  taken  a  prominent  part  in  its  activities. 
He  served  as  clerk  in  1804-05,  was  chairman  no  less  than  ten  times,  and  in 
the  twenty-three  years  from  1800  to  1822  he  was  chosen  Fellow  of  the  State 
Society  twenty  times.  In  181 5  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society  granted  him 
the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.    He  died  about  1851. 

Dr.  Phineas  Hide  was  born  in  Franklin,  in  1749.  He  practiced  first  in 
Poquetannock,  but  the  most  of  his  life  work  was  done  in  Mystic.  He  served 
as  surgeon  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  both  in  the  army  and  navy. 

Drs.  Amos  Prentiss,  Sr.  and  Jr.,  may  be  mentioned  as  charter  members 
of  the  County  Medical  Association  in  1792. 

The  following  physicians  were  also  residents  of  Groton  or  Stonington 
at  one  time  or  another:  Daniel  and  William  Lord,  Asher  Huntington,  Jonathan 
Grav,  James  Noyes,  Asa  Spalding,  Alfred  Bailey,  Andrew  T.  Warner,  Thomas 
J.  Wells,  Mason  Manning,  Edward  York,  David  Hart,  Henry  C.  Brown,  Alvah 
Gray,  Horatio  Robinson,  John  P.  Wells,  Edwin  Bentley,  John  Smith,  Joseph 
Durfee,  Orrin  E.  Miner,  Benjamin  F.  Stoddard,  Elias  F.  and  A.  W.  Coates. 

The  town  of  Lyme  has  been  favored  with  a  long  line  of  able  practitioners. 
One  of  the  earliest  of  record  was  Dr.  Eleazer  Mather.  He  was  born  Novem- 
ber 17th,  1716,  and  graduated  from  Yale  in  1738.  "He  settled  in  Lyme  (Ham- 
burg Society),  where  he  was  a  useful  physician,  selectman,  magistrate,  etc." 
(Dexter,"  I,  p.  607.)  He  married,  November  15th,  1741,  Hannah  Waterhouse 
(or  Watrous)  of  Lyme,  by  whom  he  had  six  sons  and  one  daughter.  He 
was  one  of  the  committee  of  eighteen  appointed  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
to  examine  candidates  for  the  positions  of  surgeon  and  surgeon's  mate  (Rus- 
sell,' p.  199).  Dr.  Mather  died  November  2nd,  1798.  On  his  tombstone  he  is 
called :  "an  eminent  physician  and  a  man  of  universal  knowledge." 

Dr.  Samuel  Mather,  son  of  the  preceding,  was  one  of  the  original  members 
of  the  New  London  County  Medical  Association,  of  which  he  was  chosen 
chairman  in  1804,  '09  and  '10.  He  was  chosen  Fellow  of  the  State  Society 
at  its  first  meeting  in  1792,  and  several  times  later.    In  1804  the  Connecticut 


EARLY  MEDICINE  AND  MEDICAL  MEN  399 

Medical  Society  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.     He  was 
dismissed  by  his  own  request  on  account  of  advanced  age  in  1813. 

Dr.  John  Noyes,  another  charter  member  of  the  County  Medical  Asso- 
ciation, was  several  times  chosen  Fellow  of  the  State  Society,  and  was  chair- 
man in  1803,  after  v/hich  his  name  does  not  occur  again  on  the  records. 

Dr.  Thomas  Miner  was  a  member  of  the  New  London  County  Medical 
Association  for  four  years  from  1810  to  1813 ;  after  that  he  removed  to  Middle- 
town,  and  became  later  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Connecticut  physicians 
of  his  time,  and  a  medical  author  of  considerable  prominence. 

Other  physicians  of  Lyme  who  came  later  were  Drs.  John  C.  M.  Brock- 
way,  who  lived  at  Hamburg;  Richard  Noyes,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
County  Medical  Society  for  sixty-two  years ;  Sylvester  Wooster,  Marvin 
Smith,  Richard  Warner,  John  D.  Rogers,  Oliver  Kingsley,  Reuben  L.  Miner, 
John  Noyes,  and  William  W.  J.  Warren. 

In  East  Lyme,  near  the  village  of  Flanders,  there  were  three  physicians 
who  deserve  mention :  Dr.  John  L.  Smith,  who  was  a  practitioner  there  for 
many  years,  a  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association  from  1813  to  his 
death,  December  20th,  i860;  Dr.  Austin  F.  Perkins;  and  Dr.  Vine  Utley. 
The  latter  is  especially  noteworthy  for  his  early  work  in  vaccination,  and  as 
a  contributor  of  articles  to  the  "Medical  Repository  of  New  York."  He  was 
a  member  of  the  County  Medical  Association  from  1807  to  1819.  His  son, 
Leander  Utley,  became  a  prominent  physician  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 

Looking  back  at  the  lives  of  these  old-time  medical  men,  I  think  one 
may  truly  say  that  as  a  class  they  do  not  fall  far  short  of  Stevenson's  esti- 
mate— ^"to  have  shared  as  little  as  any  in  the  defects  of  the  period,  and  most 
notably  exhibited  the  virtues  of  the  race."  They  chose  a  calling,  arduous  and 
toilsome,  and  with  all  shades  of  native  ability  and  educational  advantage  they 
did  their  work  for  the  most  part  well  and  faithfully,  striving  manfully  accord- 
ing to  their  lights  to  bring  comfort  and  healing  to  the  sick,  and  to  further  the 
welfare  of  the  communities  in  which  they  dwelt.  Numbered  among  them 
were  some  few  gifted,  forward-looking  puissant  men,  the  equals  of  any  of 
their  time  and  country. 

REFERENCES 

1.  Steiner,  Walter  R.,  M.D. :  Historical  Address,  "The  Evolution  of  Medicine  in  Con- 
necticut, with  the  Foundation  of  the  Yale  Medical  School  as  Its  Notable  Achievement." 
New  Haven,  1915. 

2.  Packard,  Francis  Randolph:  "The  History  of  Medicine  in  the  United  States."  Phila- 
delphia, 1901. 

3.  Russell,  Gurdon  W.,  M.D. :  "An  Account  of  Early  Medicine  and  Early  Medical  Men 
in  ConnecticiU."     Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc,  loy2. 

4.  Lindsley,  Charles  A.,  M.D. :  "The  Beginning  and  Growth  of  Sanitary  Legislation  in 
Connecticut."     Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc,  1892. 

5.  "The  Diary  of  Thomas  Minor."  Stonington,  Conn.,  1653-1684;  Ed.  by  S.  H.  Miner 
and  G.  D.  Stanton,  Jr.,  N.  Y.,  1899. 

6.  "N.  E.  Hist.-Genealog.  Reg.,"  Vol.  9.  PP-  43-Si- 

7.  "The  Diary  of  Manasseh  Minor,"  Stonington,  Conn.,  1696-1720;  published  by  Frank 
Denison  Miner  and  Miss  Hannah  Miner,  1915. 

8.  Caulkins,  Frances  Manwaring:  "History  of  New  London,  Connecticut."  New  Lon- 
don, 1852. 

9.  "Diary  of  Joshua  Hempstead  of  New  London,  Connecticut,"  Coll.  N.  L.  Co.  Hist. 
Soc.  Vol.  I.  1901. 


400  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

10.  Caulkjns,  Frances  Manwaring:  "History  of  Xorwich,  Connecticut,"   iS66. 

11.  Woodward,  Ashbel,  M.D. :  "Biographical  Sketches  of  the  Early  Physicians  of  Nor- 
wich."   Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc,  1862. 

12.  Webster,  Noah:  "A  Brief  History  of  Epidemics  and  Pestilential  Diseases."  Hart- 
ford, 1799. 

13.  "Medical  Repositoo' ."  N.  Y.,  New  Series,  Vol.  2,  p.  213,  "History  of  the  Mortal 
Epidemic  that  appeared  in  the  Towns  of  Lyme  and  Waterford,  Connecticut,  1813,"  by  Dr. 
Vine  Utley  of  Lyme,  Connecticut. 

14.  Chamberlain,  C.  W. :  "Malaria  in  Connecticut."  Rept.  Conn.  State  Board  of  Health, 
1881. 

15.  Graves,  Charles  B.,  M.D.:  "Epidem.ic  Disease  in  Early  Connecticut  Times." 
Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc,  1920. 

16.  Woodward,  Ashbel,  M.D. :  "Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  New  London  County 
Medical  Association."    Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc.,  1876. 

17.  Salibury,  Edward  Elbridge  and  Evelyn  McCurdy:  "Family  Histories  and  Geneol- 
ogies,"  1892. 

18.  Sigoumey,  Mrs.  Lydia  Huntley:  "Letters  of  Life,"  1866. 

19.  Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc,  various  years. 

20.  Hurd,  D.  H. :  "History  of  New  London  County."     1882. 

21.  Chapman,  Rev.  F.  W. :  "The  Coit  Family."     Hartford,  1874. 

22.  Bolton,  H.  Carrington :  "Memoir  of  Dr.  Elisha  North."  Proc.  Conn.  Med.  Soc., 
Hartford,  1887. 

23.  Steiner,  Walter  R.,  M.D. :  "Dr.  Elisha  North.  One  of  Connecticut's  Most  Eminent 
Practitioners."     1908. 

24   Brainard,  Lucy  Abigail :  "Brainard-Brainerd  Genealog>'."     Hartford,  1908. 

25.  Wheeler,  Richard  Anson:  "History  of  the  Town  of  Stonington."   New  London,  igoo. 

26.  Dexter,  Franklin  Bowditch :  "Biographical  Sketches  of  the  Graduates  of  Yale  College, 
with  Annals  of  the  College  History-."    N.Y.,  1885. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  PRESS 

The  "New  London  Day" — "Norwich  Bulletin" — "Cooley's  Weekly" 

In  another  part  of  this  historj'  has  been  printed  an  outline  of  the  early 
history  of  the  press  in  New  London  County.  The  following  accounts  bring 
this  record  to  date.  From  the  "New  London  Day"  we  print  by  permission 
Mr.  Theodore  Bodenwein's  account  of  his  experience  in  building  up  this 
paper  to  its  present  position  of  influence: 

This  is  the  third  time  I  have  been  called  upon  to  write  the  history  of  "The 
Day."  The  first  time  was  in  1894,  three  years  after  I  bought  the  paper,  and 
the  second  time  was  five  years  ago,  after  twenty-five  years  of  ownership  and 
service  to  the  community.  Would  that  some  better  qualified  person  assumed 
the  task,  now  that  the  period  of  forty  years  ago^the  birth  of  "'The  Day" — 
is  the  epoch  to  be  commemorated. 

I  did  not  enter  the  emplo\-  of  "The  Day"  until  six  months  after  the 
paper  was  started,  or  in  December,  1881,  so  what  I  write  about  the  early 
days  of  the  paper  comes  to  me  partly  from  observation  and  partly  through 
report.  Elsewhere  in  this  issue  John  C.  Turner,  sole  survivor  of  the  trio 
which  founded  "The  Day,"  contributes  a  very  interesting  and  witty  article 
on  New  London  journalism  fort}'  years  ago,  but  he  modestly  refrains  from 
giving  a  close-up  view  of  the  early  days  of  the  paper. 

"The  Day"  was  founded  mainly  to  give  Major  John  A.  Tibbits,  a  well- 
known  lawyer  and  politician  of  that  period,  a  vehicle  through  which  he  could 
air  his  political  views.  The  major,  as  versatile  a  man  as  ever  graced  an 
editorial  chair,  had  been  at  a  previous  time  editor  of  the  "Evening  Star,"  and 
upon  that  luminary's  purchase  by  the  New  London  Printing  Company  in 
1873,  had  become  financially  interested  in  its  successor,  the  "Evening  Tele- 
gram," but  C.  L  Shepard  had  a  controlling  interest  in  that  paper,  and  I  judge, 
although  my  information  on  this  point  is  hazy.  Major  Tibbits  was  not  able 
to  dictate  the  policy  of  the  paper,  so  he  concluded  to  start  one  of  his  own. 

Those  were  da5-s  when  politics  cut  more  of  a  figure  in  men's  careers  than 
at  present,  and  Maj.  John  A.  Tibbits,  lawyer,  writer  and  orator,  lived  on 
political  expectations  all  his  life.  So  much  for  the  motives  behind  "The 
Day's"  inception. 

The  partnership  which  undertook  to  publish  "The  Day"  was  composed 
of  John  A.  Tibbits,  John  C.  Turner  and  William  J.  Adams.  Of  course, 
Tibbits  was  to  be  editor.  Turner  was  to  handle  the  telegraphic  and  local 
news  and  Adams  was  to  be  the  business  manager.  The  only  other  member 
of  the  stafif  was  John  McGinley,  city  editor  and  reporter. 

John  C.  Turner  in  the  seventies  had  been  city  editor  of  the  "Telegram" 
and  at  the  same  time  city  clerk.  On  the  "Telegram"  the  city  editor  was  also 
the  paper's  only  reporter.  Newspapers  in  those  days  did  not  run  very  much 
to  local  news  and  if  they  turned  out  a  column  and  a  half  an  issue  that  was 
considered  an  extraordinary  quantity.  Turner  was  exceedingly  popular  in 
those  days  as  reporter  and  city  clerk,  just  as  he  was  later  as  town  clerk.  He 
knev.-  everybody  in  the  city — not  so  difficult  a  feat  in  a  city  of  less  than  ten 
thousand  inhabitants.  He  had  left  the  "Telegram"  about  five  years  before 
"The  Day"  was  ushered  into  the  world,  to  engage  in  journalistic  labors  in 
other  cities  and  was,  I  suppose,  induced  to  come  back  to  his  native  heath  by 
Major  Tibbits. 

N.L.-  1-26 


402  NEW  LOXDOX  COUNTY 

John  A.  Tibbits,  although  a  comparatively  young  man,  had  an  interesting 
career.  Jie  had  served  in  the  Civil  War  with  distinction  and  had  been 
severely  wounded  in  an  engagement.  Ke  was  a  lawyer  by  profession,  but 
gave  most  of  his  time  to  the  lure  of  politics.  Journalism  to  him  vi'as  inci- 
dental. As  a  writer  he  had  fev,'  equals,  especially  as  a  descriptive  writer. 
The  ease  and  facility  with  which  he  wrote  in  long  hand  was  remarkable.  His 
penmanship  was  like  copper  plate  and  his  copy  was  seldom  marked  by  changes 
or  interlineations.  It  was  no  unusual  task  for  him  to  sit  down  in  an  afternoon 
and  turn  cut  enough  editorial  copy  to  last  a  week.  He  could  turn  his  hand 
to  any  kind  of  newspaper  writing  with  equal  facility.  He  had  a  vivid  imagina- 
tion and  a  keen  sense  of  hum.or.  During  the  trial  of  the  Cramer  murder  case 
in  New  Haven,  he  reported  the  event  for  "The  Day"  and  for  a  week  or  more 
he  daily  produced  a  highly  interesting  story  of  the  trial  that  filled  the  entire 
first  page  of  "The  Day."  But  he  was  erratic  and  occasionally,  when  his 
services  were  needed  the  most,  he  was  unaccountably  missing.  Not  that 
his  habits  were  bad.  but  because  he  had  foimd  some  need  for  a  trip  to  Wash- 
ington or  Hartford  or  some  other  point  on  a  political  errand.  So  it  was  on 
the  last  day  of  the  Cramer  trial.  He  left  for  New  Haven  the  same  as  usual, 
but  that  evening  he  failed  to  return  on  his  usual  train  with  a  pocket  full  of 
copy  and  next  morning  "The  Day"  lacked  its  usual  front  page  story. 

William  J.  Adam.s  was  an  active,  energetic  local  man,  v,ho  had  made  quite 
a  lot  of  money,  it  was  said,  in  fortunate  speculations  and  by  various  enter- 
prises. He  was  the  lessee  of  Lawrence  Hall,  the  city's  only  amusement  place, 
and  most  of  the  theatrical  productions  of  the  period  cam.e  here  under  his 
auspices.  He  was  also  the  citv  bill  poster,  a  business  quite  dififerent  and  of 
m.ore  imDortance  than  it  is  now.  Among  his  other  activities  he  handled  the 
circulation  of  the  "Evening  Telegram"  for  m.any  years,  personally  distributing 
the  papers  each  afternoon  to  the  newsbo^-s.  The  circulation  was  around  one 
thousand  copies,  I  should  judge.  It  was  printed  in  the  basement  of  the 
wooden  building  on  Green  street,  south  of  L.  Lewis  &  Co.'s  store,  now  occu- 
pied by  sundri^  small  shops,  and  the  boys  took  turns  in  running  back  behind 
the  building  through  an  alle -way  to  the  basement  to  gather  up  a  supply  of 
papers  as  they  came  from  the  fly  of  the  printing  press.  The  press  was  a  slow- 
running  affair,  which  threw  the  papers  out  at  the  rate  of  about  ten  a  minute. 
Charlie  Allen,  a  colored  man.  caught  the  papers  as  fast  as  the  fly  delivered 
them  and  as  quickly  as  twentv-five  or  more  were  collected  handed  them  over 
to  a  waiting  boy.  The  papers  were  then  brought  up  to  Adams  in  a  room  off 
the  street  and  here  on  a  counter  he  folded  them,  with  a  speed  and  accuracy 
that  was  marvelous,  and  then  counted  them  out  to  the  carriers. 

John  j\IcGinley.  although  a  New  Londoner  by  birth,  had  long  been  living 
in  New  York  City,  and  had  been  a  bu3^er  for  a  linen  concern,  a  ver\'  responsible 
position  which  frequently  took  him  to  England.  The  firm  suspended  business 
and  somehow  he  was  asked  to  try  his  hand  at  reporting.  He  had  no  previous 
experience,  but  he  did  have  a  large  fund  of  information,  a  read-  command 
of  laneuage,  a  genial  personality  and  a  happy  faculty  of  making  friends  and 
keening  them.  He  also  had  a  flne  sense  of  humor  and  he  took  to  reporting 
easily  and  wrote  many  clever  things. 

Of  the  original  "Day"  force,  with  the  exception  of  John  C.  Turner,  I 
know  of  but  two  who  are  still  living — Samuel  T.  Adams  and  William  H. 
Rolfe.  Adams  was  a  compositor  on  the  "Evening  Telegram"  and  when  "The 
Day"  started  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  latter's  composing  room.  Two 
or  three  years  later  he  was  promoted  to  telegraph  editor,  replacing  John  G. 
Lynch,  and  he  held  that  position  until  Major  Tibbits  in  iS8o  was  appointed 
LTnited  States  Consul  at  Bradford,  England,  by  President  Harrison,  when  he 
was  m.ade  managing  editor.  He  held  that  position  until  1891,  when  the  paper 
passed  into  m.3'  control. 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  PRESS  403 

William  H.  Rolfe  was  the  telegraph  operator  who  took  the  press  report 
for  "The  Day"  when  the  paper  started.  In  its  early  days  "The  Day"  always 
managed  to  have  a  good  telegraphic  news  report,  although  the  cost  came  very 
high.  Rolfe  was  an  expert  telegrapher,  and  as  typewriters  had  not  come  into 
use  at  that  time  he  had  to  take  the  news  report  sent  in  code  from  the  wire 
in  long  hand.  This  required  very  rapid  writing  and  it  was  generally  the 
custom  among  telegraphers  taking  press  copy  to  write  without  lifting  the 
pen  from  paper  so  that  nearly  all  the  words  were  connected,  but  as  they  were 
sufficiently  apart  there  was  no  difficulty  in  reading  them.  At  the  very  start 
of  the  paper  there  came  the  exciting  episode  of  President  Garfield's  assassina- 
tion and  the  press  wires  were  loaded  with  news,  causing  an  unusual  strain 
upon  the  operator  taking  the  report.  Despite  the  hard  work  and  long  hours. 
Rolfe  stuck  to  his  job  with  the  loyalt>'  and  grit  that  has  always  been  char- 
acteristic of  him  while  at  his  work,  until  his  right  arm  was  swollen  twice  its 
usual  size  and  he  was  forced  to  lay  off.  Subsequently  he  left  New  London 
and  spent  ten  3-ears  or  more  at  his  occupation  in  New  York  City,  but  about 
sixteen  ;i  ears  ago  he  returned  to  "The  Day"  as  Associated  Press  operator  and 
has  been  with  the  paper  ever  since  in  that  capacit}'.  During  his  absence  he 
had  perfected  himself  in  the  use  of  a  typewriter,  an  accomplishment  made 
necessary  by  the  great  increase  in  volume  of  words  sent  in  the  press  re|jorti 
Mr.  Rolfe  had  the  unusual  faculty  of  taking  the  most  rapid  and  complicated 
wire  report  on  a  typewriter  and  at  the  same  time  keeping  up  a  lively  conver- 
sation with  a  chance  visitor  and  not  make  a  break  or  a  skip  in  his  copy. 

The  paper  was  launched  on  the  morning  of  July  3,  1881.  It  had  quarters 
on  the  second  floor  of  the  stone  building  on  Bank  street  now  owned  and 
occupied  by  Darrov/  &  Comstock.  There  were  two  stores  beneath,  one  on 
the  corner  occupied  as  a  saloon  and  the  other  by  C.  C.  Calvert,  father  of 
W.  S.  and  DcWitt  C,  both  doing  business  here  now.  Entrance  was  effected 
by  an  outside  stairway.  There  could  not  have  been  much  money  invested 
in  the  plant,  probably  a  few  thousand  dollars. 

Preparations  for  starting  the  paper  had  been  under  way  for  some  time. 
In  order  to  create  reader  interest,  great  secrecy  was  observed  as  to  the  name 
the  paper  was  to  assume.  The  title  "The  Day"  was  evidently  evolved  by 
Major  Tibbits  himself.  There  had  been  many  newspapers  with  title  of  "Star," 
"Sun."  "World,"  etc.,  and  the  idea  of  the  owners  of  the  new  paper  was  to 
adopt  a  name  that  would  be  original.  I  never  heard  whether  the  major 
originated  it  or  whether  he  came  upon  it  in  one  of  the  works  of  Thackeray 
which  mentions  a  publication  that  was  called  "The  Day." 

To  keep  the  title  a  dark  secret,  not  even  the  compositors  setting  advance 
copy  were  let  in,  and  wherever  the  name  should  have  appeared,  three  letters 
were  substituted,  whatever  letters  the  imagination  or  fancy  of  the  writer 
dictated.  The  idea  on  the  night  of  publication  was  to  take  these  out  and 
insert  "DAY'."  This  was  done,  but  so  well  were  the  dummy  titles  distributed 
and  so  numerous  that  not  all  of  them  were  eliminated  when  the  paper  went 
to  press  ver\'  late,  with  the  results  that  as  the  combined  office  force  seized  the 
first  copies  off  the  press  and  eagerly  scanned  the  freshly  printed  pages  there 
were  explanations  like  this:  "Hey,  stop  the  press;  it  says  here  'The  Cat,'" 
and  "Here's  another  title  that  hasn't  been  changed,  'The  Bat,'  "  or  again, 
"Oh,  Lord  !  Here's  one  more — 'The  Dog.'  "  At  last,  however,  all  the  cor- 
rections were  made  and  "The  Day"  began  its  career. 

It  was  a  four-page,  six-column  sheet,  printed  on  a  flat-bed  country  press, 
and  it  presented  an  attractive  appearance.  The  captions  over  news  items 
were  extremely  modest  in  regard  to  size  of  type,  a  fault  not  then  recognized 
in  the  journalistic  profession.  James  Hislop,  dry  goods  merchant,  had  a  two- 
column  advertisement  on  the  first  page  and  the  rest  of  the  paper  had  con- 


404  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

siderable  advertising.     Mr.  Hislop  always  was  a  firm  believer  in  "The  Day" 
as  an  advertising  medium  and  never  failed  to  use  it. 

The  arrival  of  "The  Day"  was  eagerly  awaited  by  the  townspeople  and 
it  had  a  good  sale.  The  first  issue  came  out  on  a  Saturday  morning.  It  was 
late  in  getting  out — a  condition  modern  newspapers  have  not  entirely  over- 
come— and  everyone  connected  with  it,  from  editor  to  printer's  devil,  v^ras 
completely  tired  out.  The  next  day  was  Sunday  and  the  following  Monday 
was  a  holiday.  Of  course  on  the  Fourth  of  July  everyone  connected  w-ith  th,e 
paper  left  for  parts  unknown.  Then  fate  decreed  that  one  of  the  biggest  news 
events  of  the  century  should  occur.  President  Garfield  was  shot  Sunday  after- 
noon in  the  Washington  railroad  station.  The  dreadful  news  was  flashed 
along  the  wires  and  reached  New  London,  but  not  enough  of  "The  Day's" 
mechanical  force  could  be  found  to  issue  an  extra  and  the  paper  lost  a  great 
opportunity  to  score  a  beat.  Not  until  Tuesday  morning  could  it  tell  its 
readers  what  had  occurred  on  that  eventful  Sunday,  and  a  perusal  of  Tues- 
day's issue  fails  to  disclose  any  account  of  the  shooting,  the  incidents  of  the 
crime  being  passed  over  as  if  everyone  knew  all  about  them  and  "The  Day" 
began  its  chronicle  of  the  event  by  reporting  the  condition  of  the  patient  and 
the  disposal  of  the  murderer. 

"The  Day"  soon  became  a  good  newspaper  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
period,  but  it  was  quickly  found  by  the  owners  that  the  field  was  not  large 
enough  to  support  two  daily  newspapers.  The  proprietors  after  a  few  months 
found  their  capital  exhausted  and  decided  to  seek  financial  help.  So  a  stock 
company,  with  a  capital  of  $10,000,  v^-as  organized.  The  stockholders  included 
Frank  H.  Chappeil,  Augustus  C.  Williams,  Robert  Coit.  Mason  Young, 
Frank  L.  Palmer,  James  Greenfield  and  others.  At  this  time  John  C.  Turner 
decided  to  relinquish  his  connection  with  "The  Dav"  and  departed  for 
Paterson,  N.  J.,  where  he  remained  for  many  years  on  "The  Guardian."  Wil- 
liam J.  Adams  also  disposed  of  his  interest  and  returned  to  his  amusement 
enterprises  and  bill  posting.  Later  he  suffered  business  reverses  and  died 
poor. 

With  the  help  of  new  capital  "The  Day"  returned  to  the  conflict.  It  was 
to  be  a  war  to  the  death  between  it  and  its  evening  contemporar}'.  To  divide 
the  advertising  patronage  in  the  evening  field,  in  December,  1881,  "The  Day" 
launched  a  small  afternoon  daily,  called  "The  Penny  Press."  It  was  a  little 
four-page  sheet  to  which  everybody  contributed  a  bit  of  his  brightest,  and 
it  made  a  hit.  A  one-cent  newspaper  was  then  a  novelty.  "The  Penny  Press" 
was  at  once  in  great  demand.  After  the  novelty  of  issuing  it  wore  off,  how- 
ever, it  was  left  to  take  care  of  itself,  and  it  became  a  dull  and  tame  affair. 
It  survived  over  a  year,  however,  until  "The  Day"  establishment  was  moved 
from  Bank  street  into  the  Brainard  Block  on  Main  street,  occupving  one 
store  on  the  street,  and  two  upper  floors.  To  such  an  extent  was  "The  Penny 
Press"  regarded  by  its  publishers  as  an  ephemeral  affair  that  no  attempt  was 
made  to  preserve  a  file  of  it  and  none  is  known  to  exist  today. 

But  I  am  getting  ahead  of  my  story.  I  should  sav  som.ething  of  the 
surroundings  in  which  "The  Day"  found  itself  when  it  was  ushered  into  the 
world.  Its  office  and  composing  room  was,  as  already  noted,  on  the  second 
floor  of  the  stone  building  in  Bank  street  now  occupied  by  Darrow  &  Corn- 
stock.  Entrance  had  to  be  effected  by  climbing  a  long  pair  of  stairs  on  the 
outside  of  the  building.  The  floor  it  occupied  was  divided  in  two.  the  front 
room  being  used  as  business  and  editorial  room.  In  the  rear  was  the  usual 
complement  of  type  cases,  stands  and  press  to  be  found  in  small  newspaper 
offices  of  those  days.  The  stationary  engine  designed  to  supply  motive  power 
for  the  press  was  located  in  the  northeast  corner  of  the  rear  room. 

"The  Day"  started  off  with  fort^•  advertisers  whose  announcements  filled 
ten  columns.     Merchants  from  1881  to  1891  and  even  later  did  a  very  much 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  PRESS  405 

different  kind  of  newspaper  advertising  than  they  are  doing  at  the  present 
time.  Up  to  twenty-five  years  ago,  nearly  every  merchant  contracted  for  a 
certain  amount  of  space,  usually  only  a  few  inches,  and  ran  some  kind  of 
announcement  ever\-  day  in  that  space,  but  seldom  did  any  of  them  change 
the  copy  of  their  advertisements  oftener  than  once  a  week,  and  many  of  them 
did  not  change  their  copy  more  than  twelve  times  a  year.  It  was  easy  for 
the  newspaper  publisher  to  calculate  how  much  advertising  space  he  was 
going  to  carry  every  day  because  none  of  the  advertisers  varied  the  size  of 
their  advertisements,  except  at  rare  intervals.  So  that  the  size  of  the  paper 
could  be  permanently  maintained  whether  it  was  four  or  eight  pages.  In 
1881  there  was  no  elasticity  in  the  size  of  newspapers.  The.  maximum  size 
was  eight  pages  ("The  Day's"  was  only  four)  and  when  advertising  crowded 
the  columns  too  much,  a  supplement  was  issued  of  two  pages  or  whatever 
number  was  required.  This  supplement  had  to  be  folded  into  the  main  paper 
by  hand.  Presses  were  not  built  to  print  a  varying  number  of  pages.  Nearly 
all  the  daily  papers  forty  years  ago  were  printed  on  flat-bed  presses  into  which 
the  sheets  were  fed  by  hand  and  printed  on  one  side  at  a  time.  After  one  side 
was  printed  the  sheets  were  turned  over  and  printed  on  the  reverse.  Some- 
times a  folder  was  attached  to  the  press  so  that  the  papers  would  come  out 
folded,  but  often  the  circulation  was  so  small  that  folding  by  machine  was 
deemed  unnecessary. 

When  "The  Day"  acquired  its  big  type  revolving  web  press  in  1883,  that 
machine  was  considered  the  highest  development  in  a  printing  press.  It 
printed  from  hand-set  type  imposed  in  semi-circular  turtles,  which  were 
clamped  onto  a  large  cylinder. 

"The  Day"  was  printed  on  a  web  of  paper  by  the  impression  from  the 
type  in  these  turtles  or  forms.  It  was  a  cumbrous  contrivance  but  considered 
a  great  advance  upon  a  flat-bed  press,  as  it  would  turn  out  papers  at  the  rapid 
rate  of  1,200  an  hour. 

It  was  found  after  "The  Day"  ceased  experimenting  with  the  one-cent 
paper  scheme  that  in  order  to  handle  a  sufficient  volume  of  advertising  at  the 
low  rates  current,  four  pages  would  not  be  sufficient,  and  so  the  plan  of 
making  two  press  runs  of  four  pages  each  was  adopted  and  the  two  sheets 
folded  together  by  hand  to  make  an  eight-page  paper. 

The  type  revolving  web  press  soon  became  obsolete  and  was  superseded 
by  presses  using  sterotype  plates  clamped  on  cylinders,  instead  of  the  cumber- 
some brass  turtles  containing  hand-set  type.  When  printing  from  semi- 
circular plates  was  found  practical,  improvements  were  soon  made  in  printing 
machinery  so  that  a  variable  number  of  pages  could  be  printed  at  will. 

Soon  after  I  obtained  control  of  "The  Day"  in  1891,  indication  of  an 
evolution  in  advertising  became  manifest.  Some  advertisers  began  to  contract 
for  variable  space  so  that  they  could  run  large  advertisements  on  certain  days. 
David  S.  Machol,  a  local  clothing  merchant,  I  think  was  the  first  to  use  half- 
page  advertisements,  one  or  two  days  in  the  week.  This  practice  was  more 
and  more  observed  until  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  print  a  paper  with  the 
same  number  of  pages  every  dav. 

When  I  bought  "The  Day"  I  immediately  put  into  the  press  room  a 
Babcock  two-feed  Dispatch  press  which  would  print  2,500  copies  an  hour. 
I  thought  this  capacitv  would  be  all  "The  Day"  would  need  for  many  years. 
In  1894,  three  years  later,  when  the  plant  was  moved  from  the  old  stone 
residence  in  Bank  street,  opposite  Tilley,  to  the  newly  built  brick  building 
a  short  distance  above  on  the  same  street,  erected  for  its  use  by  F.  H.  &  A.  H. 
Chappel,  a  new  press  was  purchased,  called  the  Cox  Duplex,  which  while  it 
printed  from  a  flat  bed.  used  a  roll  of  paper  and  was  capable  of  printing  ac- 
cording to  the  guarantees  of  the  manufacturers,  5,000  complete  papers,  folded, 
per  hour.     This  press  answered  the  purpose  very  well  for  a  few  years,  but 


4o6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

as  we  wanted  to  get  more  than  eight  pages  of  seven  columns  each  we  then 
bought  a  Hoe  stereot-.  pe  press,  giving  us  a  product  of  eight  pages,  eight 
columns  each ;  printing  on  this  press  was  from  stereotype  plates,  and  we 
could  get  a  speed  of  about  10,000  an  hour.  Making  stereotype  plates  was 
^oing  into  a  new  branch  of  the  business,  and  we  were  doubtful  of  the  result. 
However,  after  a  period  of  experimentation,  the  art  of  stereotyping  lost  its 
terrors.  It  soon  developed  that  this  third  press  was  not  up  to  the  require- 
ments of  "The  Day's  increasing  business  and  so  another  one  was  purchased 
two  years  later  with  a  capacity  of  sixteen  pages.  This  press  answered  the 
purpose  for  about  ten  years,  when  it  was  replaced  by  a  press  of  still  larger 
capacity,  the  one  "The  Day"  is  using  at  present,  a  Hoe  Right  Angle  Quad- 
ruple, having  a  maximum  output  of  thirty-two  pages  and  printing  up  to  six- 
teen pages  at  a  speed  of  24,000  an  hour,  and  from  sixteen  to  thirty-two  pages 
at  12,000. 

During  its  second  year  in  its  Bank  street  location  "The  Day"  moved  its 
establishment  to  the  Brainard  Building  on  Main  street,  where  it  occupied  a 
store  on  the  ground  floor  and  two  floors  above.  The  press  room  was  located 
in  the  rear  of  the  store. 

In  1882,  Thomas  M.  Waller,  a  New  London  lawyer  and  orator  and  fervid 
Democrat,  was  elected  governor  of  the  State.  Probably  that  intensified  the 
desire  of  the  Dem.ocrats  of  the  city  to  have  a  newspaper  organ,  both  of  the 
existing  papers  being  Republican.'  At  any  rate,  a  group  of  well-known  Demo- 
crats purchased  the  "Evening  Telegram"  in  1883  from  C.  I.  Shepard  and 
others  who  were  interested  in  that  paper,  and  brought  one  of  the  writers  of 
the  Brooklyn  "Daily  Eagle,"  F.  Dana  Reed,  here  to  manage  it  for  them.  Up 
to  this  time  the  "Telegram's"  staff  consisted  of  John  G.  Crump,  editor,  Julius 
T.  Shepard,  Jr.,  news  editor,  and  Walter  Fitzmaurice,  reporter.  Fitzmaurice 
stayed  with  the  paper  in  his  former  capacitv  when  the  Democrats  assumed 
control.  Reed  was  a  man  of  considerable  ability,  more  literary  than  business- 
wise,  perhaps,  and  he  did  his  best  to  put  the  "Telegram"  upon  a  profitable 
basis,  but  he  found  it  increasingly  difficult.  Both  papers  at  this  time  -were 
having  a  hard  struggle  to  meet  their  expenses  and  the  "Telegram"  had  the 
least  financial  backing  upon  which  to  call  when  the  ghost  failed  to  walk. 

Some  time  previous  to  the  demise  of  the  "Telegram,"  some  bright  genius 
on  "The  Day"  conceived  a  plan  of  selling  the  paper  at  one  cent  a  copy  and 
giving  it  a  State-wide  circulation.  This  was  soon  after  the  establishment  had 
been  moved  to  Main  street.  The  scheme  was  entirely  practicable  by  reason 
of  the  unequalled  railroad  facilities  New  London  had  at  that  time.  Early 
morning  connect'ons  could  be  made  with  cities  and  towns  in  all  directions. 
At  this  time  also  a  one-cent  daily  newspaper  was  a  novelty  and  the  field  open 
to  "The  Day"  was  unoccupied.  The  metropolitan  papers  were  not  then 
selling  at  one  cent  a  copy  and  had  not  secured  so  enormous  a  circulation 
throughout  this  State  as  they  have  since. 

A  startling  tragedy  befell  the  paper  in  1885.  Fred  S.  Perry,  an  eccentric 
individual  living  on  Franklin  street,  taking  offense  at  a  fancied  affront  in  an 
article  that  had  been  printed  in  the  paper,  walked  into  the  business  office  on 
Main  street  one  morning  and  demanded  of  Ezra  C.  Whittlesey,  the  business 
manager,  who  was  counting  over  some  money  given  him  by  a  newsbov.  if 
he  was  editor  of  the  paper.  Mr.  Whittlesey  made  some  replv  without  looking 
up,  when  Perrv,  without  further  parle'  ,  pulled  out  a  revolver  and  shot  him 
in  the  body.  The  wound  was  fatal  and  the  victim  only  survived  the  shooting 
a  few  days.  He  was  tried,  convicted  and  found  guilty  of  murder  in  the  second 
degree  and  sentenced  for  life,  but  subsequently  confined  in  the  state  insane 
as.  lum. 

During  the  early  hiptory  of  "The  Day"  a  great  deal  of  attention  was  paid 
to  what  is  termed  newspaper  style.     Greater  thought  oftentime  was  paid  to 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  PRESS  •.         407 

the  matter  of  capitalization  of  words  and  abbreviations  of  titles  than  the 
gathering  of  news.  The  editors  and  proofreaders  were  very  fussv  in  requiring 
a  close  adherence  to  the  rules  they  laid  down.  Since  that  time  there  has  been 
much  elimination  of  so-called  style  in  newspaper  composition.  At  one  time 
Italics  were  used  to  designate  the  names  of  newspapers  and  foreign  words, 
and  small  capitals  were  also  used  for  titles.  When  linotype  machines  were 
brought  into  use  they  did  not  carry  italics  or  small  capitals,  and,  consequently, 
the  use  of  this  special  kind  of  type  face  was  abolished  in  the  interest  of  speed 
and  economy.  There  is  }et  what  is  called  newspaper  style,  a  good  many 
papers  having  a  composition  style  peculiar  to  themselves,  but  everywhere 
there  is  m.ore  latitude  used  in  newspaper  composition  than  there  was  formerly. 

Newspaper  ethics  also  were  peculiar  forty  years  ago,  especially  in  New 
London  ^.nd  perhaps  some  other  New  England  communities.  It  was  cus- 
tomary to  leave  out  the  names  of  non-advertisers  m  news  reports  wherever 
this  was  possible.  If  the  display  window  of  a  State  street  store  was  smashed 
by  a  runav.-ay  horse  dashing  into  it  and  it  so  happened  that  the  storekeeper 
was  not  an  advertiser,  the  newspaper  account  would  fail  to  mention  his  name 
or  the  name  of  his  store,  and  instead  merely  allude  to  "a  State  street  store." 
This  would  appear  as  very  small  and  petty  at  this  time,  and  "The  Dav" 
discarded  this  kind  of  journalism  many  years  ago.  However,  the  practice  is 
still  in  vogue  and  carried  to  greater  length  in  certain  small  newspapers  to 
include  individuals  who  may  not  stand  in  their  good  graces.  Such  individuals 
ma-.-  take  a  prominent  part  in  public  affairs,  but  in  accounts  of  those  happen- 
ings have  their  names  purposely  omitted.  This  is  not  true  journalism.  It  is 
perverting  the  power  of  the  press.  Fortunately,  papers  which  indulge  in  such 
absurd  tactics  have  so  little  circulation  that  they  have  no  influence  and  their 
maliciousness  falls  flat. 

The  circulation  of  "The  Day"  when  it  was  founded  was  about  1,000  copies 
and,  as  has  already  been  described,  it  grew  at  one  time  to  16,000  as  a  one-cent 
paper,  and  fell  back  again  around  2,coo  copies,  when  the  price  was  put  back 
to  two  cents.  It  must  have  been  about  this  figure  in  1885.  In  1891,  v/hen 
I  purchased  the  paper,  I  had  difficulty  in  finding  a  paid  circulation  of  as  manv 
as  1,000  copies.  In  1895  the  circulation  had  increased  to  .'^,145.  In  1900  it 
had  grown  to  4,600.  In  1905  it  was  6,109.  In  iqto  the  average  was  6,892.  By 
19T5  it  had  jumped  to  8,5-;6.  Then  came  the  World  War  and  with  it  a  sub- 
stantia! increase  in  "The  Da\  's"  circulation.  In  1916  it  was  9,140,  in  1917  it 
was  9.780,  and  in  1918  it  had  increased  to  10,939.  ^n  ^he  latter  part  of  1019 
"The  Day"  was  forced  by  the  extraordinary  increase  in  cost  of  production 
to  increase  its  selling  price  to  three  cents  a  copy  and  its  average  circulation 
that  year  was  10,579.  The  ]  ear  following.  J920,  it  slightly  increased  and  was 
10,701. 

Evidently  up  to  the  time  of  the  great  war  the  growth  in  "The  Day's" 
circulation  represented  to  large  extent  the  growth  of  population  v.-ithin  New- 
London  and  vicinity.  Since  the  close  of  the  war  all  the  war-time  activities 
which  brought  many  thoi:sands  of  people  here  have  ceased  and  naturally 
there  has  been  a  great  drop  in  the  number  of  transient  residents,  yet  "The 
Day's"  circulation  has  steadilv  maintained  itself  around  10.500.  The  only 
explanation  for  this  extraordinary  gain,  vrhich  appears  to  be  permanent,  in 
"The  Day's"  circulation  at  the  advanced  price  of  three  cents  a  copy  is,  that 
it  has  secured  a  greater  hold  upon  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  people 
of  New  London  and  vicinity  and  that  a  larger  proportion  of  the  inhabitants 
of  this  territory  have  become  regular  newspaper  readers  with  "The  Day"  as 
their  favorite.  Perhaps  it  should  be  mentioned  in  this  connection  that  "The 
Day"  has  never  employed  any  kind  of  circulation  scheme  to  bolster  up  its 
circulation  and  that  all  its  readers  m.ust  have  been  attracted  to  it  vokmtarily 
because  they  liked  its  character  and  its  superiority  as  a  news  purveyor. 


4o8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

"The  Day"  remained  in  its  Main  street  quarters  until  1891.  In  1889 
Major  Tibbits  finally  secured  something  like  adequate  recognition  of  his 
services  to  his  party  by  appointment  as  United  States  consul  at  Bradford, 
England.  Upon  his  departure  Samuel  T.  Adams  was  made  managing  editor, 
Tohn  McGinley  reporter,  and  Charles  W.  Whittlesey  business  manager. 
Somes,  the  preceding  news  editor,  had  left  some  time  previously  and  been 
replaced  bv  John  G.  Lynch.  The  spirited  rivalry  of  its  morning  contemporary, 
established  in  1885,  was  making  itself  felt  and  the  business  of  "The  Day"  was 
not  profitable.  In  fact,  it  never  was  profitable.  One  move  to  reduce  its 
expenses  was  to  transfer  its  quarters  to  Bank  street  into  a  stone  dwelling 
owned  bv  the  Chappell  Company.  This  was  about  the  last  place  one  would 
pick  out  for  a  newspaper  of^ce,  but  it  had  to  do.  One  side  of  the  lower  floor 
was  occupied  as  a  dwelling  and  "The  Day"  had  its  business  office  on  the  other 
side,  its  composing  room  on  the  second  floor,  its  job  office  in  the  rear  of  the 
business  department,  and  the  press  room  was  in  an  addition  in  the  rear.  The 
big  press  was  moved  on  a  truck  from  Main  street  to  Bank  without  taking  it 
apart  and  that  was  considerable  of  a  mechanical  accomplishment.  Here  is 
where  I  found  it  in  the  fall  of  1891,  when  I  took  possession. 

My  connection  with  "The  Day"  had  been  spasmodic.  I  had  been  em- 
ployed in  various  capacities  in  the  job  printing  department  and  in  the  com- 
posing rooms,  both  on  the  "Penny  Press"  and  "The  Day"  until  1883.  Then 
for  about  a  year  I  worked  in  the  composing  room  of  the  "Evening  Telegram." 
Upon  the  demise  of  that  paper,  four  of  us,  John  G.  Lynch,  Walter  Fitzmaurice, 
George  A.  Sturdy  and  myself,  began  the  publication  of  the  "Morning  Tele- 
graph." This  paper  paid'  more  than  expenses  at  the  start  and  for  quite  a 
number  of  years  afterwards.  In  1890  I  disposed  of  my  interest.  John  G. 
Lynch  had  already  dropped  out  of  the  concern.  Later  George  A.  Sturdy  also 
sold  out  his  interest.  I  bought  it  in  1901  from  Walter  Fitzmaurice,  conducted 
it  five  years  at  a  loss,  then  gave  it,  free  of  all  incumbrances,  to  my  editor, 
Frank  J.  Brunner.  He  couldn't  make  it  pay  expenses,  and  finally  disposed 
of  it.  The  "Telegraph"  passed  through  many  vicissitudes  later.  It  suspended 
in  1920. 

In  September,  1891,  I  secured  control  of  "The  Day"  and  the  subsequent 
history  of  the  paper  was  told  by  me  five  years  ago,  when  "The  Day"  issued 
a  special  edition  commemorating  twenty-five  years'  progress  under  my  man- 
agement. It  will  not  be  necessary  at  this  time  to  repeat  the  history  of  the 
paper  during  that  time,  as  it  is  familiar  to  "Day"  readers. 

There  is  not  much  to  add  to  the  history  of  "The  Day"  since  1916.  The 
period  between  1916  and  1921  has  been  a  trying  one  for  newspapers.  There 
was  a  paper  shortage  during  the  war  and  a  great  increase  in  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction generally.  The  payroll  of  "The  Day"  has  jumped  from  $600  per 
week  in  1914  to  $i,6cK)  in  1921.  Its  paper  bill  rose  from  $12,000  in  1914  to 
$36,000  in  1920.     These  costs  seem  likely  to  remain  permanently. 

In  1918  it  had  to  increase  its  selling  price  to  three  cents  a  copy,  and  at 
various  periods  it  was  forced  to  increase  its  advertising  rates.  The  loyahy 
of  its  readers  proved  remarkable.  The  number  lost  by  the  increase  in  price 
to  three  cents  was  negligible.  Advertisers  also  responded  cheerfully  to  the 
increased  rates,  realizing  that  the  service  rendered  them  by  "The  Day"  was 
worth  the  rate  charged. 

The  volume  of  business  done  by  "The  Da>-"  in  its  early  life  I  have  no 
means  of  ascertaining,  but  in  1891  and  1892,  the  first  year  of  my  ownership, 
the  gross  receipts  were  less  than  $25,000.  By  1900  they  had  increased  to 
$37,532.12,  and  in  1910  to  $61,042.31.  By  1920  the  business  had  expanded  so 
that  the  gross  receipts  of  that  year  were  $219,771.23. 

It  has  been  the  constant  aim  of  "The  Day"  to  keep  fully  up  to  the  times 
in  the  handling  of  news.    It  has  sought  every  means  to  make  its  contents  and 


NEW   LONDON   COUNTY  PRESS  409 

appearance  pleasing  to  the  people  of  Eastern  Connecticut.  That  it  has  suc- 
ceeded, is  evidenced  by  its  constantly  increasing  circulation.  "The  Day"  has 
added  manj^  improvements  in  the  past  five  }  ears ;  it  has  strengthened  its  news 
and  feature  service,  increased  its  force  of  workers,  installed  the  newest  ma- 
chinery and  labor-saving  devices  in  place  of  some  less  efficient,  and  only 
recently  added  one  column  to  each  page,  thus  giving  its  readers  each  day  from 
twelve  to  twenty  columns  additional  reading  matter  and  illustrations.  "The 
Day"  feels  that  the  public  looks  to  it  to  supply  it  with  a  complete,  up-to-date 
newspaper,  and  that  the  paper  will  be  remiss  in  its  duty  if  it  fails  to  do  so. 

The  "Norwich  Bulletin"  thus  told  the  story  of  its  beginning  and  career, 
in  its  fiftieth  anniversary  issue: 

The  Norwich  Bulletin,  at  the  age  of  fifty  years,  appears  this  morning 
before  its  many  friends  and  readers,  extending  kindly  greetings  and  sincere 
good  wishes  to  all.  As  the  rudder  guides  the  ship,  so  will  the  lessons  learned 
of  exjierience,  that  most  severe  )et  kindest  teacher,  influence  its  future 
course,  inducing  it  to  be  not  only  abreast  of  the  times,  to  be  at  once  clean, 
bright  and  reliable,  and  to  so  well  fill  its  allotted  place  that  its  influence  will 
be  for  good  and  the  best  interests  of  mankind. 

This  paper,  of  Norwich  birth,  has  been  of,  with  and  for  its  city,  its  peo- 
ple and  the  great  public  by  which  it  is  surrounded  since  first  it  saw  the  light. 
It  has  been  of,  in,  and  with  the  community,  through  war  and  peace,  through 
trial  and  triumph,  through  adversity  and  prosperity,  it  has  grown  with  its 
growth,  matured  with  its  development  and  ripened  with  its  unfolding  until 
it  stands  today  upon  the  firm  foundation  established  not  alone  by  its  own 
efforts,  but  by  the  kindly  reciprocal  favors  of  its  clients  and  friends,  whom 
it  has  endeavored  these  many  years  to  faithfully  serve. 

The  Norwich  Bulletin  at  this  time,  taking  as  it  does  the  full  reports 
of  the  Associated  Press,  printing  special  telegraphic  news,  reporting  fully 
sports  and  all  items  of  interest  in  this  and  neighboring  towns,  publishing 
up-to-date  domestic  departments,  special  papers  and  correspondence,  and  pre- 
senting in  miscellaneous  articles  the  best  thoughts  obtainable  from  other  and 
original  sources,  supplying  the  needs  of  the  financial,  commercial,  scientific, 
literar}-,  artistic,  musical,  political  and  religious  interests,  and  in  short,  re- 
flecting in  every  issue  all  that  can  be  gathered  from  the  four  corners  of  the 
earth,  is  in  the  fore  ranks  as  a  model  newspaper.  Contrasting  this  modern 
development  with  that  of  more  than  a  century  ago,  it  may  be  interesting 
to  return  to  those  times  and  learn  of  conditions  prevalent  in  the  days  when 
the  Bulletin's  ancestor,  the  Weekly  Register,  began  its  life  in  1791. 

When  the  old-time  paper  appeared  amid  "these  struggling  tides  of 
life,"  less  than  nine  years  had  elapsed  since  the  close  of  the  Revolution. 
George  Washington  was  serving  his  first  term  as  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  John  Adams  his  single  one  as  Vice-President;  the  thirteen  orig- 
inal States,  with  the  addition  of  Vermont,  which  had  been  admitted  March 
4,  1791,  comprised  the  Union;  Connecticut's  Senators,  then  serving  in  the 
Second  Congress,  were  Oliver  Ellsworth  of  Windsor,  and  Roger  Sherman 
of  New  Haven ;  Samuel  Huntington,  Esq.,  was  the  Governor  of  Connecticut ; 
and  Benjamin  Huntington,  LL.D.,  was  then  in  office  as  the  first  Mayor  of 
Norwich,  a  portion  of  which  place  had  been  incorporated  as  a  cit)'  in  May, 
1784.  The  population  of  the  country  was  then  8.929,214,  of  the  State  237,846, 
and  of  Norwich  (after  the  division  of  the  town)  3,284.  the  center  of  the 
United  States  being  twenty-three  miles  east  of  Baltimore.  The  President's 
Cabinet  was  composed  of  Thomas  Jefferson  of  Virginia,  Secretary  of  State; 
Alexander  Hamilton  of  New  York,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  Henry  Knox 
of   Massachusetts,   Secretary   of  War;   and   Edmund   Randolph   of  Virginia, 


4IO  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

Attorney-General.  Samuel  Osgood  of  Massachusetts  was  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, but  was  not  included  in  President  Washington's  official  family. 

At  that  time  the  Sabbath  besran  at  sun-down  on  Saturday'  and  ended  at 
the  same  hour  on  Sunday ;  travel  was  by  stage-coach,  sailing  vessels,  and 
locally  by  the  "one-hoss  shay" ;  wood  was  the  universal  fuel  and  was  burned 
in  open  fireplaces  before  which  in  the  wintry  time  our  ancestors  could  warm 
but  one  side  of  their  persons  at  a  time,  the  other  portion  being  subjected  at 
times  to  a  temperature  in  the  vicinit}'  of  the  zero  point ;  flint  and  steel  served 
the  purposes  of  the  later  lucifer  match,  and  tallow  dips  furnished  the  neces- 
sar)^  artificial  light.  Norwich  Town  and  Bean  Hill  supplied  the  social, 
religious,  political  and  commercial  life  of  the  town,  the  former  being  fur- 
nished with  the  meeting-house,  postoffice,  flag-staff,  half  a  dozen  stores  con- 
taining all  useful  commodities,  the  court-house,  whipping-post,  pillory,  jail, 
several  printing  establishments,  and  Lathrop's,  Peck's  and  Brown's  taverns, 
the  latter  presenting  several  stores  and  the  wa;.  side  inns  known  as  H\-de's 
and  Witter's,  both  sections  being  possessed  of  various  small  manufactories. 
Rev.  Joseph  Strong,  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  officiated  in  the  fourth  build- 
ing of  that  society,  which  was  completed  in  1790,  stood  on  the  site  of  the 
present  edifice,  and  succeeded  that  which  previously  crowned  "ye  summit 
of  ye  Greate  Rocke."  African  slavery  was  in  vogue,  but  although  the  prac- 
tice of  holding  human  beings  in  bondage  gradually  abated,  the  s'  stem  was 
not  legally  abolished  in  Connecticut  until  1848 — thirteen  years  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  Middle  or  Main  street  at  the  Landing  had  been 
opened  at  an  expense  of  £100  in  1790,  one  year  before  the  birth  of  this  paper, 
that  section  being  in  the  vicinit}'  of  the  confluence  of  the  Yantic  and  "Show- 
tucket,"  which  forms  the  Thames,  and  distinct  from  the  portion  first  called 
the  Landing,  which  was  at  the  head  of  the  cove  below  Yantic  Falls,  near  which 
at  an  earlier  date  stood  John  Elderkin's  flour  mill,  which  was  accessible  from 
the  town  through  Mill  lane  (now  Lafavette  street)  and  which  point  was  the 
original  landing  place  for  Indian  canoes.  This  paper  had  been  in  existence 
less  than  a  year  when  the  old  Indian  trail  from  Norwich  to  New  London  was 
shortened  to  a  distance  of  fourteen  miles  and  opened  in  a  crude  and  primi- 
tive way  to  public  travel  as  the  first  turnpike  in  the  United  States.  Toll 
began  Tuesday.  June  26,  1792,  the  rates  ranging  from  id.  for  man  and  horse 
to  gd.  for  a  four-wheeled  vehicle.  No  bank  was  established  in  Norwich  until 
June  21,  1796,  and  the  insurance  business,  which  has  become  a  factor,  was 
of  but  two  years'  earlier  birth. 

Mr.  Bushnell  was  born  in  Lebanon,  September  13,  1757,  a  son  of  Ebene- 
zer  and  Elizabeth  (Tift'any)  Bushnell  of  that  ijlace.  and  a  descendant  in 
man'-  lines  of  the  Puritan  fathers  nf  New  England.  Pie  graduated  at  Yals 
in  1777,  studied  law,  returned  to  Lebanon,  and  there  married  for  his  first 
wife,  August  14,  1780,  Tryphena,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  John  and  Jerusha  (Hunt- 
ington) Clark,  of  that  town.  He  located  in  Norwich  as  an  attorney,  where 
he  married  his  second  wife,  November  18,  1876.  Susanna,  a  daughter  of 
Capt.  Russell  and  Mary  (Gray)  Hubbard  of  New  London,  and  subsequently 
of  Norwich.  He  was  a  man  of  ready  wit.  of  varied  information,  of  fluent 
tongue  and  facile  pen.  bright,  well-balanced  and  enterprising.  After  his 
retirement  from  journalism,  he  entered  the  L^nitcd  States  nav  and  became 
paymaster  of  the  shin  "Warren."  While  serving  in  this  canacity  he  died  at 
Havana,  Cuba,  in  July  or  August,  1800,  at  the  early  age  of  43.  His  widow 
married  for  her  second  husband  and  as  his  third  wife,  January  .30,  iSc^. 
Deacon  Robert  Manwaring,  formerlv  of  New  London,  but  then  of  Norwich, 
who  died  March  29,  1807,  and  was  survived  by  her  until  April  9.  1814.  Both 
are  interred  in  the  old  burying  ground  at  Norwich  Town,  near  the  enclosed 
Huntington  lot.  where  memorial  stones  indicate  their  graves. 

The  Weekly  Register's  natal  day  was  November  29,  1791,  when  Ebenezer 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  PRESS  41 1 

Bushnell  issued  the  first  number  "24  rods  West  of  the  meeting-house,"  in 
a  building-  at  Norwich  Tov;n  ^\■hich  stood  on  the  home-lot  of  Script.  Thomas 
Waterman,  one  of  the  thirty-five  orisjina!  proprietors  of  the  town,  whose 
deed  bore  date  November,  1659.  The  house  was  built  by  Elijah  Adgate 
about  the  year  1779,  had  successive  owners  until  October  25,  1781,  when 
Ephraim  Baker  of  Norwich  in  consideration  of  £100  deeded  to  Mr.  Bush- 
nell "about  thirty  rods  of  land,  be  the  same  more  or  less,  with  a  dwcllin^j 
house  thereon  standing,  on  the  south  side  of  the  meetincf-house  rocks  (so- 
called)  on  the  south  side  of  the  town  street."  This  building-  stood  nearly 
opposite  John  Trumbull's  printing  office,  whose  newspaper,  the  Norwich 
Packet,  was  still  in  existence.  The  Weekly  Register  was  a  twelve-column, 
four-page  journal,  10  x  17  inches  in  size,  which  was  changed  to  one  of  six- 
teen columns,  Tuesday.  February  14.  1792,  the  dimensions  remaining  un- 
altered. 

Chelsea  in  Norwich,  a  district  so  well  established  in  early  days,  but 
now  so  vaguely  understood,  and  to  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  present 
day  so  utterly  unknown,  was  of  indefinite  and  unestablished  bounds,  extend- 
tending  from  about  the  Norwich  Town  line  southerly  to  the  Landing,  easterly 
to  the  Shetucket  and  westerly  along  the  bank  of  the  Thames.  East  Chelsea, 
originally  a  most  unattractive  portion,  was  subject  to  inundation  with  every 
freshet,  and  the  receding  waters,  leaving  an  accumulation  of  stones,  boulders, 
ice  and  rubbish  on  the  swampy  slopes  of  the  rivers,  became  known  also  as 
Swallowall.  West  Chelsea  developed  into  the  ship-building  center,  the  high 
ground  in  the  vicinity  being  called  at  varying  times  Oak  Spring  Hill,  Baptist 
Hill  and  Mount  Pleasant.  The  commercial  center,  a  part  of  the  West  Side. 
the  Falls  district  and  the  choicest  residential  portion  were  included  within 
the  limits  of  Chelsea. 

The  first  number  of  the  "Chelsea  Courier,"  a  four-page,  sixteen-column 
paper,  11  x  18  inches,  appeared  Wednesday,  November  30,  1796,  and  con- 
tained the  following  "conditions": 

1.  The  Courier  will  be  printed  at  Chelsea,  on  Wednesday,  and  delivered  to  city 
subscribers'in  the  forenoon. 

2.  It  shall  be  printed  on  good  paper  of  Royal  size. 

3.  It  shall  contain  the  most  important  Foreign  and  Domestic  intelligence,  to- 
gether with  such  original  productions,  &c.,  as  shall  be  thought  deserving  of  public 
attention. 

4.  The  price  to  sirbscribcrs  will  be  one  dollar  and  sixty-seven  cents  per  annum, 
exclusive  of  postage. 

5.  One-half  of  the  subscription  v/ill  be  expected  on  delivery  of  the  first  number. 

Thirteen  and  a  half  of  the  sixteen  columns  were  devoted  to  reading 
matter,  in  which  appeared  items  of  foreign  intelligence  of  as  late  date  as 
September  28.  The  remaining  space  was  devoted  to  advertisements,  among 
which  was  one  by  the  editor,  who  announced  as  for  sale  "at  his  office  in 
Chelsea"  a  long  list  of  books,  in  which  were  included  Ash's  Grammar.  Ameri- 
can Revolutionary,  Arabian  Nights'  Entertainment,  Baxter's  Saints'  Rest, 
Bunvan's  Visions  of  Heaven  and  Hell,  Com.pletc  Letterwriter,  Dilworth's 
Arithmetic,  Elliott's  RTedical  Pocket  Book,  Fordice's  Addresses,  Goldsmith's 
Works,  Hervey's  Meditations,  Cecum's  Hymns,  Penitential  Cries,  Vicar  of 
Wakefield  and  Zimmermann  on  Solitude. 

Messrs.  Robinson  and  Dunham  continued  their  close  business  relations 
three  years,  when  their  copartnershi]?  was  dissolved  March  30,  1825.  On  that 
date  the  following  notice  appeared:  "With  the  present  number  we  complete 
the  third  volume  of  the  Courier,  and  with  it  the  senior  editor  ends  his  labors 
as  one  of  its  conductors  and  proprietors,  having  disposed  of  his  right  and 
title  to  this  paper  to  his  partner." 

Mr.  John  Dunham  then  assumed   full  charge  of  the  Courier,  which   he 


412  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

published  in  the  basement  of  the  Dunham  block,  a  wooden  building  on 
Shetucket  street,  the  site  of  which  is  now  covered  by  the  brick  block  in 
which  at  present  are  the  ground  floor  offices  of  the  Adams  Express  Company 
and  the  New  London  County  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company.  The  paper 
was  conducted  with  ability  and  success  for  more  than  sixteen  years,  at  the 
end  of  which  period,  on  September  15,  1841.  Mr.  Dunham  announced  his 
retirement.  His  successor,  Rev.  Dorson  Ebenezer  Sj-kes,  then  assumed 
charge,  and  assured  subscribers  that  the  principles  of  the  great  Whig  party, 
so  abh'  advocated  by  his  predecessor,  would  continue  to  guide  the  political 
course  of  the  paper,  that  his  editorial  brethren  of  all  political  creeds  would 
be  treated  with  the  courtesy  becoming  a  self-respecting  journal  and  that  his 
readers  would  be  furnished  with  the  news  of  the  day  presented  in  acceptable 
and  pleasing  form. 

The  Courier  at  this  time  was  a  twenty-eight  column,  four-page  weekly, 
18  X  24  inches  in  size,  well  printed  and  of  attractive  appearance.  Its  new 
management,  however,  felt  that  it  had  outgrown  its  old  quarters  in  the  Dun- 
ham block,  and  therefore  announced  October  20.  1841,  that  "The  office  of 
the  Norwich  Courier  is  removed  to  the  third  story  of  the  building  on  the 
corner  of  Water  and  Dock  streets,  a  few  rods  below  the  Post  Ofifice."  This 
was  the  building  which  still  stands  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Little  Water 
and  Market  (formerly  Dock)  streets,  and  is  now  owned  by  Dr.  Patrick  Cas- 
sidy.  It  was  then  numbered  51  W'ater  street,  where  the  paper  was  printed 
bx"^  J-  G.  Cooley.  A  temporary  change  of  office  quarters  was  made  in  1843, 
as  the  Weekly  Courier  announced  March  28  of  that  year  that  "The  publica- 
tion office  of  the  Norwich  Courier  is  removed  to  117  Main  street,  next 
door  east  of  the  Ouinebaug  F.ank,  at  which  place  the  Editor  may  be  found 
at  all  times,  during  office  hours."  This  was  in  the  block  now  occupied  by 
Gilbert's  furniture  store,  the  bank  and  the  office  of  the  paper  being  on  the 
second  floor. 

^londay,  March  7,  1842,  in  addition  to  the  Weekly  Courier,  appeared 
a  new  venture  of  the  enterprising  management.  "The  Norwick  Courier, 
edited  and  published  by  D.  E.  Sykes,  is  issued  every  afternoon  immediatelv 
after  the  arrival  of  the  Eastern  Mail,  at  51  Water  street.  Office  third  story." 
This  eight-cent  a  week,  one-cent  per  copy  daily,  was  a  sixteen-column.  four- 
page  sheet,  12  X  17  inches,  which  gave  up  the  ghost  August  13  following,  and 
was  succeeded  three  days  later  by  the  Tri- Weekly  Courier,  a  paper  of  the 
same  size,  which  was  issued  Tuesdays,  Thursdays  and  Saturdays  at  six 
cents  a  week,  or  two  cents  a  copj-.  The  Weekly  Courier  appeared  before 
its  readers  January  11,  1846.  "materially  enlarged,"  not  by  increase  in  size 
but  by  additional  length  of  columns,  which  while  somewhat  augmenting  the 
news,  editorial  and  advertising  space,  detracted  somewhat  from  the  former 
handsome  appearance  of  the  paper. 

In  a  few  years  the  journal  removed  to  Chapman's  block.  Main  street, 
Franklin  Square,  occupying  a  room  over  the  present  electric  street  car  wait- 
ing room,  the  proprietor  having  his  editorial  sanctum  at  the  northwest  cor- 
ner, overlooking  Main  street,  Franklin  Square,  and  what  is  now  Rose  alley. 
A  fire  occurred  in  this  building  about  the  year  1852,  destroying  some  files 
of  the  Courier  and  other  property,  and  compelling  a  removal  to  the  three- 
cornered,  or  "flat-iron"  building  which  occupied  the  corner  of  Main  and 
Shetucket  streets,  which,  with  the  adjoining  property  of  the  Norwich  Na- 
tional Bank,  was  subsequently  demolished  to  make  room  for  the  present 
Shannon  block.  The  last  change  of  location  under  Mr.  Sykes'  management 
was  about  the  year  1858,  when  the  Courier  was  removed  to  the  Chelsea 
building.  Franklin  Square,  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Main  and  Ferry  streets, 
over  the  store  now  occupied  by  Mrs.  Edwin  Fay.  Saturday  morning.  Febru- 
ary 26,  1859,  on  his  retirement  from  the  paper,  ^Ir.  Sykes  published  his  inter- 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  PRESS  413 

esting  editorial  farewell  as  follows: 

"Seventeen  years  ago  last  September,  the  Norwich  Courier  contained  the  vale- 
dictory of  our  respected  predecessor,  John  Dunham,  and  the  introductory  notice  of 
our  accession  to  the  editorial  chair. 

"Through  summer  heat  and  winter  snow;  through  rain  and  shine,  through  good 
report  and  evil  report,  we  have  held  our  way  from  that  day  to  this,  failing  not  in  our 
weekly  intercourse  with  our  patrons  and  friends;  and  for  seventeen  years  this  day, 
adding  to  those  hebdomadal  visits  a  tri-weekly  call  upon  such  of  our  acquaintances 
as  signified  their  desire  to  see  more  of  us. 

"The  Courier  'still  lives'  and  speaks  for  itself  in  the  enlarged,  improved  appear- 
ance, and  the  favor  it  has  met  with  at  the  hands  of  its  friends  and  supporters.  Of  our 
taithfulness  as  a  political  paper,  the  columns  of  our  living  contemporary,  tlie  Aurora, 
and  of  our  defunct  friends,  the  Norwich  News,  Norwich  Tribune,  Norwich  Evening 
Advertiser,  and  we  know  not  how  many  besides,  will  show  the  dire  necessity  hud 
upon  them,  as  political  opponents,  to  pull  every  wire,  turn  every  stone,  and  speak 
every  word  which  could,  by  any  possibility,  ensure  our  utter  and  entire  demolition 
and  annihilation. 

"We  cannot  leave  the  editorial  chair  without  expressing  to  our  friends  and 
subscribers  our  appreciation  of  their  good  will.  Many  of  them — nay,  almost  all,  we 
regard  as  personal  friends;  and  those  of  whom  we  have  failed  to  please,  who  have 
parted  company  with  us,  we  consider  not  as  enemies,  for  the  terrible  mandate,  'stop 
my  paper,'  that  greets  an  editor's  ear  in  every  time  of  political  excitement,  is  not 
irrevocable,  and  we,  in  common  with  our  brethren  of  the  quill,  have  learned  to  wait 
patiently  until  the  tide  sets  back.  To  our  correspondents,  we  tender  our  thanks;  to 
our  advertising  friends,  without  whose  aid  no  town  or  city  like  Norwich  can  sustain 
a  good  paper,  we  present  our  acknowledgments  for  favors  received,  and  our  best 
wishes  that,  acting  on  the  'live  and  let  live'  principle,  their  various  trades,  occupations 
or  business  may  so  flourish  as  to  fill  their  coffers  and  satisfy  their  desires.  To  our 
constant  friends  w'ho  have  sustained  us  in  our  constant  labors,  by  sj'mpathy,  cheerful 
words  and  kindly  deeds,  we  offer  our  grateful  thanks. 

"Of  our  successor  it  is  not  needed  that  we  multiply  words.  Though  a  compara- 
tive stranger  to  this  community,  he  is  no  stranger  to  Connecticut.  For  the  last  four 
years  his  connection  with  the  Springfield  Republican — one  of  the  best  daily  papers 
in  New  England,  and  largely  circulating  in  Connecticut — has  rendered  it  necessary 
for  him  to  keep  himself  thoroughly  informed  upon  the  current  political  events  and 
interests  of  our  State.  He  enters,  therefore,  upon  his  editorial  duties  under  circum- 
stances peculiarly  favorable  both  to  himself  and  to  the  public.  Of  his  plans  and 
purposes  with  reference  to  the  future  interests  and  management  of  the  Courier,  we 
leave  him  to  speak  for  himself.  Knowing  what  we  do  of  those  plans  and  views,  we 
feel  the  highest  confidence  that  nothing  is  wanting  but  a  cordial  and  liberal  support 
on  the  part  of  the  public  to  ensure  to  this  communiti'  a  daily  journal  second  to  no 
other  paper  in  Connecticut.  With  a  heary  God-speed  to  our  successor,  and  a  sincere 
God's  benison  upon  our  readers,  young  and  old,  we  lay  down  our  worn  and  v.-eary 
pen." 

Mr.  S>kes'  successor  as  editor,  publisher  and  proprietor  of  the  Courier, 
was  Georcfe  B.  Smith,  a  young  printer  from  Sprinsffield,  whose  introductory 
appeared  March  i,  1859.  The  establishment  retained  the  old  quarters  in  the 
Chelsea  buildin.sf,  from  which  were  issued  the  Daih'  and  the  Weekly  Courier. 
The  new  editor  informed  the  public  that  "This  journal  will  continue  to  be 
devoted  to  the  highest  interests  of  this  community,"  "and  to  the  inculcation 
of  those  political  principles  that  were  intended  by  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution to  underlie  the  whole  system  of  government,  and  that  are  now  repre- 
sented by  the  Republican  party."  "The  Weekly  Courier  will  be  issued  each 
Saturday,"  and  "will  be  the  larsrest,  and  we  are  sangrtine  enough  to  believe, 
the  best  weeklv  newspaper  in  Connecticut." 

Mr.  Smith's  high  aims  and  sanguine  hopes  were  doomed  to  early  and 
bitter  disappointment,  and  Norwich,  that  "graveyard  of  newspapers,"  ap- 
peared about  to  claim  another  victim.  Possessed  of  excellent  taste  and  fair 
business  abilities,  he  was,  nevertheless,  almost  at  the  outset  of  his  career 
beset  with  financial  difficulties  against  which  he  struggled  manfully,  yet 
vainly.  At  the  expiration  of  seven  months,  unable  longer  to  continue,  he 
retired,  and  the  paper  reverted  to  Mr.  Sykes. 


414  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

The  issue  of  Saturday,  August  20,  1859,  contained  a  notice  to  this  effect, 
when  the  former  editor  was  compelled  to  resume  the  arduous  duties  which 
he  thought  had  been  forever  relinquished.  Under  these  adverse  circum- 
stances, Air.  Sykes  decided  to  publish  only  a  semi-weekly  paper,  and  an- 
nounced that  "The  days  of  publication  will  be  Wednesday  and  Saturday  of 
each  week;  and  the  paper  will  be  issued  in  time  to  be  sent  oft'  in  all  direc- 
tions by  the  earliest  mails  on  the  mornings  of  those  days,  or  by  the  earliest 
trains,  stages,  post-riders,  etc.  The  city,  Norwich  Town,  Bean  Hill  and 
Greeneville  subscribers  will  be  supplied  by  carriers  as  heretofore,  and  care 
will  be  taken  that  this  is  done  with  fidelity  and  promptitude."  In  addressing 
advance  subscribers  the  editor  wrote : 

"Although  the  paper  lias  come  under  its  new  management  seriously  encumbered 
with  the  subscription  contracts  of  the  late  publisher,  and  although  their  repudiation 
by  us  would  cause  but  a  trifiing  loss,  individually,  to  subscribers  who  have  paid  in 
advance,  v,-hile  their  fulfilment  by  us  would  involve  a  heavy  sacrifice;  and,  although 
no  legal  or  moral  obligation  rests  upon  us  to  pay  these  debts;  yet,  rather  than  permit 
the  lowering  of  the  good  name  of  otic  of  the  oldest  journals  in  Connecticut  or  New 
England,  or  allow  a  sin  of  this  sort  to  stain  its  escutcheon,  the  responsibility  of 
satisfying  these  claims  is  hereby  voluntarily  assumed  by  us,  and  Daily  and  Weekly 
subscribers  will  be  furnished  with,  the  Semi-Weekly  issue  until  the  dates  when  their 
prepaid  subscriptions   shall  expire." 

The  reasons  given  for  the  non-issuance  of  the  Daily  Courier  were  thus 
given : 

"Many  readers  will  naturally  be  anxious  to  know  the  reason  why  the  Daily  Courier 
is  not  continued.  Our  answer  is  that  our  idea  of  what  such  a  paper  ought  to  be 
could  not  be  carried  out,  except  at  a  heavy  pecuniary  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the 
publisher.  Outside  of  Norwich  but  little  advertising  support  can  be  relied  on  for 
a  daily  paper;  consequently,  the  duty  of  sustaining  it  must  belong  to  the  city.  That 
responsibility  it  has  had  a  fair  opportunity  to  assume,  but  has  declined,  guided  in 
the  matter,  we  believe,  by  circumstances  which  would  have  decreed  otherwise  had 
they  all  been  considered.  These  reasons  have  been  of  a  pecuniary  character — a  large 
number  of  our  citizens  being  unable  or  disinclined  to  incur  the  expense  of  a  daily, 
and  many  of  our  businss  m.en  iiaving  yet  to  discover  the  benefit  of  liberal  advertising 
in  a  local  paper,  established  for  the  advantage  of  local  interests.  W''e  think  the  truth 
is  included  in  wJiat  we  have  said;  and  none  can  regret  the  facts  more  than  v.'e  do. 
So  soon  as  we  see,  or  believe  v.'e  see,  the  time  to  have  arrived  when  better  and 
brighter  prospects  for  remunerative  support  justify  a  renewal  of  the  experiment, 
we  shall  not  be  slow  in  taking  advantage  of  the  change." 

December  7,  1859,  it  was  announced  that  on  and  after  Thursday,  January 
5,  i860,  the  publication  of  the  Norwich  Weekly  Courier  would  be  resumed. 
It  was  claimed  that  the  paper  would  contain  more  reading  matter  than 
would  anv  other  weekly  journal  published  in  Connecticut,  and  that  its  nevi^s 
would  be  fresh  up  to  the  hour  of  publication.  It  was  gently  hinted,  also, 
that  the  New  Year  would  be  "a  good  time  to  subscribe." 

With  the  issue  of  the  Semi-Weekly  Courier  of  Wednesday.  June  6.  Mr. 
Sykes  retired  from  the  paper  for  the  second  tiine,  and  in  this  instance  was 
succeeded  bv  H.  C.  Kinne.  At  the  top  of  the  first  column  of  the  second 
page  appeared  the 

AMERICAN  REPUBLICAN  TICKET. 

For  President, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  of  Illinois. 

Vice-President, 
HANNIBAL  HAMLIN,  of  Maine. 

Mr.  Kinne  continued  the  publication  in  the  Chelsea  building,  Franklin 
Square,  which  has  been  the  paper's  home  for  so  long  a  time. 

Friday,  August  20,  i860,  he  announced  that  "We  this  day  cominence  the 
publication  of  the  Courier  as  a  Daily  Evening  paper.    Those  who  have  previ- 


NEW  LONDON  COUNTY  PRESS  415 

ouslv  received  the  Semi-Weekly  by  carrier  will  be  furnished  with  the  Daily 
till  further  arrangements  can  be  made.  The  Semi-Weekly  will  be  continued 
for  the  benefit  of  our  country  readers  so  that  we  are  now  issuing  the 
Courier  in  three  forms.  Daily,  Semi-Weeklv  and  Weekly.  As  we  are  cir- 
culating a  thousand  dailies  within  the  limits  of  the  town,  transient  ad%-er- 
tisers  will  appreciate  the  value  of  the  Courier  as  a  medium  of  comm.unication 
with  the  people." 

Mr.  Kinne's  proprietorship  of  the  paper  was  of  limited  duration,  as  he 
died  in  a  few  months,  when  the  journal  once  more  reverted  to  Mr.  Sykes. 
The  latter  gentleman  finally  disposed  of  the  property  to  Manning,  Perry 
&  Co.,  the  proprietors  of  the  Norwich  Morning  Bulletin,  who  issued  their 
first  number  of  the  Weekly  Courier,  December  15,  1858,  in  the  Chelsea 
building.  The  paper  was  16  x  21J/2  inches  in  size,  its  eight  pages  containing 
forty-eight  columns.     In  this  issue  the  publishers  informed  the  public  that 

"We  believe  the  readers  of  both  the  Eastern  Bulletin  (the  weekly  edition  of 
the  Morning  Bulletin)  and  the  Norwich  Weekly  Courier  v>-i!l  without  exception  be 
gratified  to  learn  that,  by  the  consolidation  of  the  two  papers,  they  are  hereafter  to 
be  furnished  with  the  largest  and  best  weekly  in  the  State.  Under  the  arrangement 
now  perfected,  we  sliall  continue  to  send  all  paying  subscribers  of  each  paper  the 
Norwich  Weekly  Courier  in  its  present  form.  The  advantages  resulting  from  this 
consolidation  to  subscribers  and  advertisers,  as  well  as  the  publishers,  will  be  readily 
appreciated.  Manj-  of  our  readers  will  recognize  with  pleasure  an  old  familiar  name 
and  face,  many  others — readers  of  the  Eastern  Bulletin — ^^vill  give  cordial  greeting 
to  well-known  features  that  come  to  them  new  titled,  and  many  more  v.'e  hope  will 
find  it  to  their  interest  to  make  acquaintance  with  us  during  the  year  ahead. 

"The  Courier  has  heretofore  been  issued  as  a  daily  evening  paper,  a  semi-weekly 
and  weekly.  In  place  of  all  these  we  shall  issue  the  Norwich  Bulletin  daily,  and  the 
Norwich  Weekly  Courier  on  Saturday  morning  of  each  week." 

This  issue,  whose  whole  number  was  285.  contained  twenty-six  columns 
of  reading  and  twenty-two  of  advertising,  all  well  arranged  and  presenting 
a  harmonious  whole. 

January,  1861,  the  presses,  type  and  accessories  w-ere  removed  from  the 
Chelsea  building  to  Chapman's    block. 

The  Courier,  erratic  hitherto  only  in  its  occasional  changes  from  Weekly 
to  Semi-Weekly  and  to  Daily,  appearing  at  different  times  in  one,  the  other 
or  all  of  these  forms,  now  settled  permanentl;.'  as  the  weekly  visitor  in  thou- 
sands of  homes  where  its  presence  became  ever  welcome  and  where  its  benefi- 
cent influence  will  forever  continue. 

In  the  autumn  of  1858,  Mr.  J.  Homer  Bliss,  a  practical  printer  and  a 
fluent  and  forceful  writer,  feeling  that  the  time  was  propitious  and  that 
Norwich  would  generously  respond  to  the  effort,  induced  William  D.  Man- 
ning and  James  N.  Perry  to  consolidate  their  printing  offices  and  issue  a  daily 
paper  which  would  achieve  popularity  by  its  enterprise  in  fully  reflecting 
the  local  news  and  its  liberality  in  presenting  the  telegraphic  intelligence 
of  the  world.  The  last-named,  whose  establishment  was  on  the  middle  floor 
of  Chapmian's  block,  was  the  fortunate  possessor  of  a  power  press,  the  mo- 
mentum for  which  was  obtained  from  the  machine  shop  of  Peleg  Rose,  which 
fronted  on  what  is  now  Rose  alley,  and  is  at  present  occupied  by  Powers 
Brothers  as  a  fish  market.  At  the  sugg-estion  of  Mr.  Henry  Hugh  Osgood. 
Isaac  H.  Bromley  was  selected  as  editor,  and  became  a  member  of  the  firm 
of  Mannincr,  Perrv  &  Co.,  the  other  partner  in  which,  whose  name  did  not 
appear,  being  J.  Homer  Bliss.  The  title  "Bulletin"  was  suggested  by  Mr. 
Bromlev  as  being  almost  a  synonym  for  "the  latest  news,"  and  because  of 
its  originality,  few,  if  anv.  newspapers  having  then  adopted  it.  Accommo- 
dations facing  Franklin  Square  were  secured  in  Franklin  hall.  Chapman's 
block,  where  was  born  and  from  which  was  issued  December  15,  1858.  the 
first  number  of  the  Norwich  Morning  Bulletin,  a  twenty-four  column,  four- 


4i6  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

page  journal,  in  size  i6  x  21  inches.  This  number  contained  eleven  columns 
of  reading  and  thirteen  of  advertising  matter,  and  as  an  initial  issue  indicated 
the  high  position  the  paper  was  destined  to  attain  in  the  journalistic  world. 
The  editor  thanked  the  brethren  of  the  press  throughout  the  State_  "for  the 
many  kind  notices  with  which  they  have  generally  heralded  our  coming,"  and 
paid  his  respects  in  true  Bromley  style  to  the  "Hartford  Post  and  New  London 
Star,  for  having  put  into  tangible  shape  and  deniable  form,  a  report,  which 
has  been  somewhat  industriously  circulated  throughout  the  district— with 
how  much  malevolence  we  are  unable  to  say — that  the  main  object  with 
which  this  paper  was  started  was  to  influence  the  congressional  nomination 
of  this  Third  District." 

In  their  prospectus  the  publishers  announced  that  the  Eastern  Bulletin 
would  be  published  weekly,  and  would  contain,  in  addition  to  editorial  and 
other  original  matter,  the  current  news  of  the  week,  a  summary  of  telegraphic 
items,  foreign.  State  and  local  news,  market  reports  for  the  week,  carefully 
prepared,  marine  intelligence,  agricultural  matters  and  literary  selections. 

Mr.  J.  Homer  Bliss,  the  projector  of  the  Bulletin,  soon  retired,  yet  in  his 
Plainfield  home  today  views  with  satisfaction  the  present  results  of  his 
initial  efforts  of  half  a  century  ago.  Two  of  the  other  three  partners.  Messrs. 
Manning  and  Perry,  are  still  with  us  as  residents  of  Norwich. 

September  4,  i860,  Charles  B.  Piatt  of  Norwich  became  a  partner  in  the 
Bulletin,  retiring  Mr.  Perry,  and  three  days  later  the  firm  name  of  Manning, 
Piatt  &  Co.  appeared  as  publishers  and  proprietors.  This  copartnership  was 
dissolved  October  31,  1863,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Bulletin  Association,  a 
joint  stock  company  organized  for  the  purpose,  the  president  and  directors 
of  which  held  their  first  meeting  November  30  following.  The  capital  stock, 
all  paid  in,  was  $25,000,  of  which  the  president,  James  D.  Mowry,  held  230 
shares,  and  the  directors,  Messrs.  Isaac  H.  Bromley,  Joseph  H.  Starkweather 
and  Albert  H.  Almy,  owned  310,  230  and  230,  respectively.  The  company 
erected  the  Bulletin  building  on  Main  street  in  1867,  which  was  then  num- 
bered 127.  but  is  now  83,  which  has  since  been  the  home  of  the  paper. 

The  name  of  Campbell  &  Co.,  as  publishers  and  proprietors,  appeared 
Thursday,  July  6,  1871,  but  disappeared  with  the  issue  of  Friday,  February 
28,  1873,  being  succeeded  Monday,  March  3,  following,  bv  that  of  the  Bulletin 
Company.  The  administration  of  the  former  was  evidently  unsatisfactory 
to  the  stockholders,  as  on  the  last-named  date  it  was  explained  that 

"A  newspaper  is  not  a  philanthropic  enterprise,  witlioiit  regard  to  pecuniary 
profits.  Of  all  classes  of  men,  an  editor  sihou'd  have  the  least  thought  of  hiuiself,  and 
the  most  for  others.  It  is  their  interests,  rather  than  his  own,  wliich  he  is  summoned 
to  promote.  Consequently,  piques  of  any  sort  and  peculiar  ideas  of  his  own  have 
no  rightful  place  in  liis  paper.  People  want  a  paper  principally  for  the  news,  and 
this  they  shall  have  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  give  it.  We  do  not  consider  it  to  be  a 
part  of  our  duty,  however,  to  fill  the  news  out  by  any  imaginings  of  our  own  in  order  to 
make  it  more  sensational.  Truth  shall  not  be  lost  sight  of,  nor  shall  the  character 
or  reputation  of  men  be  assailed  without  sufficient  reasons;  while  the  pleasure,  good 
?nd  prosperity  of  all  our  readers  shall  be  ever  kept  in  view." 

The  Bulletin  Association  retained  its  building  but  disposed  of  the  paper, 
presses,  type  and  other  accessories  to  the  Bulletin  Company,  a  corporation 
formed  for  the  object,  the  present  and  a  majority  of  the  directors  of  which 
held  their  first  meeting  March  15,  1873.  The  capital  stock  of  $50,000,  all 
paid  in,  was  held  as  follows:  H.  H.  Osgood,  300  shares;  Albert  S.  Bolles, 
200:  Lorenzo  Blackstone,  200;  H  B.  Norton,  200;  T.  P.  Norton,  200;  A.  W. 
Prentice,  100;  John  F.  Slater,  100;  Charles  Bard,  100;  E.  N.  Gibbs,  200; 
W.  R.  Wood,  80;  W.  R.  Burnham,  40;  Sabin  N.  Sayles,  100;  James  Lloyd 
Greene,  50,  and  Gardiner  Greene,  50.  The  Eastern  Bulletin  was  consolidated 
with  the  Courier  at  the  time  of  the  latter's  acquisition  by   Manning,  Perry 


NEW  LONDON   COUNTY  PRESS  417 

&   Co.,   and   the  paper   continued   under   the  oh]   and    honored   name   as   the 
weekly  edition  of  the  Norwich  Morning  Bulletin. 

Many  years  later,  as  the  citizens  of  this  place.  New  London,  and  the 
neighboring  towns  had  so  long  been  accustomed  to  the  early  and  regular 
appearance  of  their  favorite  paper,  filled  to  overflowing  with  local  and  world- 
wide intelligence  and  all  that  appealed  to  literary,  artistic,  musical,  scientific, 
religious  and  general  tastes,  it  was  thought  that  the  word  "Morning"  in  the 
title  became  superfluous.  It  was  therefore  eliminated,  and  from  August  i, 
1895,  the  ever-welcome  visitor  has  appeared  as  the  Norwich  Bulletin. 

During  the  earlier  days  of  The  Bulletin  the  old  style  of  hand  composition 
was  in  vogue,  when  seven  men  were  able  to  set  only  from  fourteen  to  eighteen 
columns  of  matter  in  a  night.  During  the  second  term  of  Alonzo  H.  Harris' 
management.  The  Bulletin  was  equipped  with  Mergenthaler  linotype  ma- 
chines and  a  web  rotary  press,  which  greatly  facilitated  the  work  of  the 
plant.  The  linotype  machines  were  invented  by  Ottmar  Mergenthaler,  and 
reasonably  perfected  in  1886,  to  do  plain  composition,  and  were  first  used 
by  the  New  York  Tribune.  They  have  since  been  greatly  improved,  and 
are  now  adapted  to  fine  newspaper  and  job  work. 

Linotype  machines  are  operated  by  finger  keys,  as  is  the  typewriter, 
but  there  the  similarity  between  them  ends.  The  former  works  automati- 
cally, making  and  bringing,  ready  for  the  press  or  stereotyping  table,  bars 
of  type  metal,  each  bearing,  properly  justified,  the  type  to  print  an  entire 
line.  The  machine  does  not  set  the  type,  but  evolves  a  slug,  or  line  of  metal, 
upon  which  the  characters  are  cast,  ready  to  print  from.  With  this  paper's 
improved  facilities,  three  employees  can,  in  a  single  night,  furnish  thirty 
columns,  and,  with  the  aid  of  operators  during  the  day,  the  capacity  may  be 
increased  to  forty-five  or  more.  The  present  daily  average  of  The  Bulletin  is 
thirty-five  columns.  The  advance  made  in  machinery  is  shown  from  the 
fact  that  with  the  old  Washington  hand  press  100  four-page  papers  could  be 
printed  in  an  hour — with  our  modern  web  power  press  200  eight-page  papers 
can  be  printed  and  delivered  folded  per  minute. 

The  officers  and  editors  of  The  Bulletin  have  been  as  follows 

Presidents — Col.  Hugh  Henry  Osgood,  Norwich,  February  28,  1873,  to 
March  11,  1884.  Amos  W.  Prentice,  Norwich,  March  11,  1884,  to  March  11, 
1889.  Col.  Hugh  Henry  Osgood,  Norwich,  March  11,  1889,  to  October  21, 
1899.  Henry  H.  Gallup,  Norwich,  March  5,  1900,  to  March,  1908.  Chas. 
D.  Noyes,  March  4,  1908,  present  incumbent. 

Business  Managers — The  first  manager,  who  certainly  did  well  his  part, 
was  James  N.  Perry,  Norwich,  December  15,  1858,  to  April,  1859.  Charles 
Black,  from  April,  1859,  to  September  4,  i860.  The  managers  since  that 
day  have  been:  Charles  B.  Piatt,  Norwich,  September  4,  i860,  to  October 
wich,  secretary  and  treasurer,  July  14,  1874,  to  March  7,  1875.  William  Fitch, 
New  London,  secretarj',  treasurer  and  business  manager,  March  8,  1869,  to 
December  3,  1874.  Elisha  C.  Rice.  Norwich,  1874  to  1873.  Charles  E.  Dyer, 
Norwich,  secretary,  treasurer  and  business  manager,  December  14,  1875,  to 
April  30,  1880.  Alonzo  H.  Harris.  Norwich,  April  30,  1880,  to  May  7,  1884. 
Charles  Elisha  Dyer,  Norwich,  secretary,  treasurer  and  business  manager, 
May  7,  1884,  to  January  25,  1888.  Alonzo  H.  Harris,  Norwich,  January  25. 
1888,  to  October  i,  1898."  W.  H.  Oat,  Norwich,  October  i,  1898,  present 
incumbent. 

Secretaries  and  Treasurers — Albert  S.  Bolles,  Norwich,  secretary  and 
treasurer.  February  28,  1873,  to  July  14,  1874.  Waterman  R.  Burnham,  Nor- 
wich, secretary  and  treasurer,  July  14,  1874,  to  March  7,  1875.  William  Fitch. 
New  London,  secretary,  treasurer  and  business  manager,  March  8,  1875,  to 
December  3,  1875.     Charles  Elisha  Dyer,  Norwich,  secretary,  treasurer  and 

N.L.— 1-27 


4i8  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

business  manager,  December  14,  1875,  to  April  30.  1880.  Albert  S.  Bolles. 
Norwich,  secretary  and  editor,  December  14,  1875,  to  Januar}'  i,  1881.  Alonzo 
H.  Harris,  Norwich,  secretary,  treasurer  and  business  manager,  1880,  to  May 
7,  1884.  Charles  Elisha  Dyer,  Norwich,  secretary,  treasurer  and  business 
manager,  May  7,  1884,  to  January  25.  1888.  Alonzo  H.  Harris,  Norwich,  from 
January  24,  1888,  to  October  i,  1898.  Charles  D.  Noyes,  treasurer,  October 
I,  1898,  present  incumbent.  Isaac  H.  Bromley,  Norwich,  December  15,  1858, 
to  1862,  when  he  entered  the  Union  army  as  the  captain  of  Company  C, 
iSth  Regiment — Management;  original  control.  B.  ^I.  Fullerton,  Spring- 
field. Mass.,  1862  to  1865. — Piatt  and  Gates  management.  Isaac  H.  Bromley, 
Norwich,  1865  to  July  5,  1871. — Gates  management.  William  H.  W.  Camp- 
bell, Salem,  Mass.,  July  6,  1871,  to  February  28,  1873.  His  pen  name  was 
"Kham." — Spalding's  control.  Albert  S.  Bolles,  Norwich,  Februan,'  28,  1873, 
to  May  18,  1874.  Sturtevant's  control.  E.  J.  Edwards,  Springfield,  Mass.. 
May  18,  1874,  to  December  14,  1875. — Osgood  regime.  Albert  S.  Bolles.  Nor- 
wich, December  14,  1875,  to  January  i,  1881. — Dyer  and  Harris;  Osgood 
regime.  A.  P.  Hitchcock,  New  Lebanon,  N.  Y.,  January  i.  1881,  to  August 
I,  1885. — Harris  and  Dyer;  Osgood  and  Prentice  regime.  Edward  H.  Hall, 
Geneva,  N.  Y.,  August  i.  1885,  to  June  25,  1888. — Dyer  and  Harris;  Prentice 
regime.  A.  P.  Hitchcock,  New  Lebanon,  N.  Y.,  1888  to  1893. — Harris ;  Pren- 
tice and  Osgood  regime.  A.  Walton  Pearson.  Newburvport.  Mass..  since 
March  17,  1893;  Dyer,  Harris,  Dyer,  Harris  and  Oat;  Osgood,  Gallup  and 
Noyes  regime. 

Assistant  Editors — William  H.  W.  Campbell.  Salem,  Mass.;  with  Brom- 
ley. James  Hall,  Geneva.  N.  Y. ;  with  Campbell,  Edwards,  Bolles  and  Hitch- 
cock. Edward  H.  Hall,  Geneva,  N.  Y. ;  with  Hitchcock.  W.  H.  H.  Hale, 
New  Haven ;  with  Hitchcock.    Miss  Ella  A.  Planning,  Norwich  ;  with  Pearson. 

Night  Editors — Henry  Hall,  Geneva,  N.  Y. ;  with  Fitch  and  Dyer.  Amos 
A.  Browning,  Norwich  ;  with  Dyer.  Edward  H.  Hall,  Geneva,  N.  Y. ;  with 
Dyer.  L.  R.  Southworth,  Woodstock;  with  Dyer.  Walter  A.  Littlefield, 
Boston.  Mass. :  with  Dyer.  Edward  H.  Hall.  Geneva.  N.  Y. ;  with  Harris. 
W.  H.  H.  Hale.  New  Haven;  with  Harris.  William  C.  Thompson.  Norwich; 
with  Harris.    Albert  A.  Sparks.  Norwich ;  with  Harris  and  Oat. 

City  Editors — William  Fuller,  Hartford  ;  with  Bromley.  Henr"  P.  God- 
dard,  Norwich ;  with  Bromley.  Henry  Wing,  Norwich ;  with  Bromley. 
Henry  E.  Bowers,  Norwich;  with  Bromley.  William  Fitch,  New  London; 
with  Campbell.  John  Rathbone.  Norwich  ;  with  Fitch.  Stiles  Stanton,  Ston- 
ington ;  with  Fitch  and  Dyer.  Edward  Thomas.  Norwich ;  with  Fitch. 
Thomas  Hull,  Stonington ;  with  Fitch.  Amos  A.  Browning,  Norwich  ;  with 
Dyer.  Stiles  Stanton,  Stonington ;  with  Dyer.  John  Rathbone,  Norwich ; 
with  Dyer.  A.  Walton  Pearson,  Newburyport,  Mass. ;  with  Dyer.  Harris ; 
Dyer  and  Harris.  William  C.  Thompson.  Norwich  ;  with  Harris.  Frederic 
VV.  Carey.  Norwich;  with  Harris.  Julian  R.  Dillaby,  Norwich;  with  Harris, 
Oat.    Harvey  M.  Briggs.  Norwich  ;  with  Oat. 

Sporting  Editor — William  Peet.  Clinton  with  Oat. 

Assistant  City  Editor — Charles  F.  Whitney ;  with  Harvey  M.  Briggs. 

Reporters — Luther  K.  Zabriskie;  with  Pearson.  Leslie  T.  Gager ;  with 
Pearson. 

The  Norwich  Bulletin  has  now  been  four  years  in  its  new  home,  Nos. 
62-74  Franklin  street,  not  far  distant  from  its  first  habitation  and  within  sight 
of  the  spot  where  its  infantile  years  were  passed.  Although  changes  have 
occurred  in  stockholders,  ofificers,  editors  and  employees.  The  Bulletin,  as 
the  child  of  The  Courier  and  the  grand-child  of  the  Weeklv  Register,  remains 
steadfast  in  its  devotion  to  principle  and  to  the  best  and  highest  interests 
of  its  patrons,  its  State  and  its  country,  and  will  ever  thus  continue. 


NEW   LONDON   COUNTY  PRESS  419 

Isaac  Hill  Bromley,  one  of  the  founders  and  the  first  editor  of  The 
Norwich  Bulletin,  won  for  himself  an  enduring  national  reputation  as  one 
of  the  able  and  brilliant  editorial  writers  of  his  time.  His  first  editorial  in 
The  Bulletin,  to  be  found  in  our  fac-simile  of  the  first  issue  presented  to  our 
readers  today,  not  only  marks  out  the  policy  of  The  Bulletin  for  its  first 
half  century,  but  shadows  forth  the  quality  of  the  editor  who  made  his  mark 
in  the  nation  by  his  masterly  and  brilliant  work  and  who  honored  every 
position  in  life  to  which  he  was  called.  Mr.  Bromley  was  a  native  of  Nor- 
wich and  a  graduate  of  Yale,  and  had  represented  the  town  in  the  Legislature 
and  this  district  in  the  Senate  prior  to  his  entering  upon  his  editorial  career. 
He  had  conducted  the  paper  but  a  short  three  years,  when  the  war  broke 
out  and  he  answered  to  the  call  of  his  country  and  went  to  the  front  as 
captain  of  Company  C  of  the  Eighteenth  Connecticut  Volunteers,  and  a  year 
later  he  was  appointed  provost  marshal  for  this  district  and  continued  in  that 
office  till  the  close  of  the  war.  He  then  returned  to  the  editorial  manage- 
ment of  The  Bulletin,  which  he  directed  until  1868,  when  he  became  a  stock- 
holder and  editor  of  the  Hartford  Evening  Post.  In  1872  he  became  an 
editorial  writer  of  the  New  York  Sun,  and  then  went  to  the  New  York 
Tribune,  w^here  he  continued  from  1873  till  1883,  after  which  he  went  to  the 
New  York  Commercial  Advertiser  as  editor  for  a  few  months.  During  the 
Presidential  campaign  of  1884.  he  edited  the  Post-Express  of  Rochester, 
N.  Y.,  and  in  1891  he  returned  to  the  New  York  Tribune,  with  which  paper 
he  remained  until  his  death  on  August  nth,  1898,  in  this  city.  Mr.  Bromley 
was  a  government  director  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  from  1882  until 
1884,  and  in  1885  was  appointed  assistant  to  the  president  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad. 

Editor  Bromley's  guaranty  for  The  Bulletin  in  the  first  issue  was  as 
follows: 

"We  intend  to  furnish  the  community  with  a  good  family  newspaper,  as  well 
as  a  political  journal,  and  we  shall  admit  notlnng  into  its  columns  that  has  the  least 
savor  of  impropriety.  We  shall  exercise  the  same  care  over  our  advertising  columns, 
as  over  the  editorial  and  other  reading  matter,  and  the  wives  and  children  of  our 
subscribers  may  feel  assured  that  they  can  read  the  whole  sheet  through  without 
being  disgusted  or  shocked  by  the  miserable  catch-penny  advertisements  that  stare 
readers  in  the  face  from  too  many  of  our  otherwise  respectable  newspapers." 

This  has  continued  to  be  the  policy  of  The  Bulletin  for  a  half  century, 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  ever  continue  as  the  honorable  record  of  the 
paper  which  today,  with  the  Yale  lectures  upon  Journalism,  which  he  endowed 
and  that  bear  his  name,  stand  as  his  best  monument. 

Mr.  James  N.  Perry,  of  the  firm  of  Manning,  Perry  &  Co.,  first  owners 
and  printers  of  The  Bulletin,  was  born  in  Lebanon,  and  learned  the  trade  of 
a  printer  in  New  London.  He  came  to  Norwich  when  twenty-one  years  of 
ajje  and  established  himself  in  the  job  printing  business  with  Horace  R. 
Woodworth,  buying  out  the  printing  business  of  James  M.  Stewart.  In  1858 
he  and  Mr.  William  D.  Manning,  under  the  copartnership  title  of  Manning 
&  Perry,  merged  their  business  and  associated  with  them  J.  Homer  Bliss  and 
Isaac  Bromley  for  the  publication  of  The  Bulletin  in  Franklin  hall,  Mr. 
Perry  acting  as  business  manager  a  few  months,  when  Mr.  Charles  Black 
succeeded  him.  Mr.  Perry  then  went  to  the  mechanical  department,  from 
which  he  retired  in  i860,  when  he  was  bought  out  by  Mr.  Charles  B.  Piatt. 
He  continued  in  the  emp!o\ment  of  The  Bulletin  job  office  for  some  time 
and  then  accepted  a  position  as  an  accountant.  Mr.  Perry  has  been  the  book- 
keeper for  J.  P.  Barstow  &  Co.  for  twenty-six  years  and  is  still  in  active  life 
and  esteemed  by  all  who  know  him. 

William  D.  Manning  was  born  in  Norwich  at  the  Falls  October  19,  1818, 


420  NEW  LONDON  COUNTY 

and  has  spent  practically  all  his  life  here,  being  identified  with  the  printing 
business  exclusively.  When  a  boy  he  went  to  Philadelphia  to  learn  the 
trade  of  a  machinist,  but  soon  returned  here  and  became  an  apprentice  in 
the  office  of  Hon.  John  Dunham,  who  then  owned  The  Norwich  Courier. 
With  him  in  the  same  office  as  an  apprentice  boy  was  John  G.  Cooley.  For 
twelve  years  after  serving  his  time  as  apprentice,  Mr.  Manning  was  foreman 
for  Ebenezer  Sykes,  who  bought  The  Courier  of  Mr.  Dunham,  later  making 
it  a  tri-weekly,  and  moved  it  away  from  Market  street.  For  a  period  he 
had  full  charge  of  the  paper  during  Mr.  Sykes'  illness.  About  1853  Mr.  Man- 
ning purchased  of  Mr.  Dunham  his  job  office  in  Shetucket  street,  which  had 
been  closed,  and  conducted  it  with  marked  success  for  about  five  years, 
althowgh  his  capital  at  the  start  was  but  $1.25.  In  1858  there  were  three 
job  printing  offices  closed  because  of  the  amount  of  lottery  business  being 
done  here  at  that  time.  There  was  a  question  as  to  what  would  be  done 
with  so  much  type  as  there  was  in  these  job  offices,  and  it  was  suggested 
to  Mr.  Manning  that  a  daily  paper  be  started  here.  Favoring  the  idea,  he 
consulted  some  of  the  prominent  Republicans  of  the  town  and  received  so 
much  encouragement  from  Hon.  H.  H.  Osgood,  Hon.  Henry  Starkweather 
and  Edmund  Perkins  that  it  was  decided  to  launch  a  daily,  James  N.  Perry 
consolidating  his  office  with  Mr.  Manning's,  and  with  them  were  J.  Homer 
Bliss  and  Isaac  Bromley  as  partners,  the  firm  name  being  Manning,  Perry 
&  Co.  The  suggestion  of  the  daily  is  said  to  have  been  made  to  Mr.  Man- 
ning by  Homer  Bliss. 

The  name  was  suggested  either  by  Colonel  Osgood  or  Mr.  Starkweather, 
and  the  first  paper  was  published  on  December  15,  1858,  on  Franklin  Square, 
over  the  car  station,  in  what  is  now  Foresters'  hall.  With  Isaac  Bromley 
as  an  editor,  the  paper  was  a  success  from  the  start  and  the  Tri-Weekly 
Courier  soon  abandoned  the  field  and  was  taken  in  by  The  Bulletin  in  Janu- 
ary, 1859.  Editor  Bromley's  leaving  was  a  severe  loss  to  the  paper,  and, 
in  fact,  against  the  wish  of  the  editor  himself,  for,  as  he  told  the  owners 
then,  he  had  placed  his  salary  so  high  to  the  Hartford  people  that  he  never 
believed  thej^  could  afford  to  pay  it.  About  that  time,  Charles  Piatt  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Perry  as  the  business  manager  and  Air.  Manning  continued  at 
the  head  of  the  job  and  mechanical  end  of  the  business  for  thirty-three  years. 
When  Mr.  Piatt  entered  the  firm  the  name  was  changed  to  Manning.  Piatt 
&  Co.,  and  the  paper  saw  one  of  its  most  prosperous  periods  during  his  man- 
agership. 

After  Mr.  Piatt's  death,  a  company  was  formed  and  Mr.  Manning  dis- 
posed of  his  interest  in  the  paper,  but  continued  to  be  the  foreman  of  the 
job  department  for  a  number  of  years  longer.  Mr.  Manning  taught  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  trade  to  many  young  men.  When  he  mastered  the  calling, 
printing  was  in  a  primitive  state,  and  most  of  the  work  was  done  on  hand 
presses.  Address  cards  were  printed  with  a  "proof  planer"  In  those  days 
printers  boasted  that  type  could  never  be  set  by  machinery  unless  inventors 
could  make  brains.  Mr.  Manning  has  lived  to  see  the  perfection  of  type- 
setting machines  and  linotj'pes,  and  presses  that  will  print  rapidly  in  five 
colors  from  a  roll  of  paper.  Although  out  of  the  business  for  twenty  years, 
he  still  feels  at  home  in  a  printing  office. 

John  Homer  Bliss  was  born  in  Hebron,  Connecticut,  August  4,  1832, 
son  of  John  Flavel  Bliss  and  Mary  Ann  Porter  of  that  place,  being  a  lineal 
descendant  of  Thomas  Bliss,  one  of  the  founders  of  Hartford,  1640.  and  also 
of  John  Porter  and  wife,  Anna  White,  pioneer  settlers  in  Windham.  1639. 
After  receiving  a  liberal  education  under  the  tutelage  of  the  late  General 
Calvin  Daggett  of  Andover,  he  entered  the  printing  office  of  the  Norwich 
Courier  in  1848,  then  located  in  the  room  directly  over  the  present  waiting 


I 


NEW  LONDON   COUNTY  PRESS  ,  421 

room  of  the  trolley  roads  on  Franklin  Square;  and  experienced  the  various 
vicissitudes  incident  to  the  life  of  a  printer's  "devil"  and  newsboy.  In  1852 
he  went  to  Waterbury,  Connecticut,  and  was  for  a  year  and  a  half  a  com- 
positor in  the  office  of  The  American,  then  located  in  the  original  Gothic 
hall,  opposite  the  corner  of  the  public  square  at  North  Main  street.  Cook  & 
Hurlburt  being  the  publishers.  In  1854  he  returned  to  Norwich,  and  in  1858 
formed  the  project  of  a  daily  paper,  and  finally  induced  the  consolidation  nf 
two  job  printing  offices — W.  D.  Manning's  on  Shetucket  street  and  James 
N.  Perry's  on  Franklin  Square — and  the  Norwich  Morning  Bulletin,  so  well 
and  favorably  known  in  eastern  Connecticut,  was  the  child  of  that  union. 

In  1876,  Mr.  Bliss  commenced  the  compilation  of  family  statistics,  the 
result  being  the  publication  by  him  of  the  "Bliss  Family  Genealogy"  in  1881, 
during  a  temporary  residence  in  Boston.  In  connection  with  this  work  he 
made  many  valued  acquaintances  and  friends,  among  them  being  the  late 
George  S.  Porter  of  Norwich.  For  several  years  succeeding  1876  he  was  a 
contributor  over  the  signature  of  "Xylo"  to  the  Printers'  Miscellany,  a  trade 
paper  published  in  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  as  many  of  the  older  printers 
in  Norwich  may  remember. 

In  the  spring  of  1881  he  became  connected  with  the  Attlebore  Advocate 
as  compositor  and  contributor  under  the  editorial  management  of  Mr.  Mow- 
ton,  remaining  there  until  January,  1887,  when  he  removed  to  Plainfield 
and  soon  afterward  became  connected  with  the  Plainfield  and  Moosup 
Journal  as  compositor,  and  has  for  some  twenty  years  been  the  local  re- 
porter for  that  paper,  and  for  several  years  has  furnished  news  items 
for  The  Bulletin.  Mr.  Bliss  is  eminently  pacific  in  disposition,  is  very 
domestic  and  regular  in  habit,  seldom  indulging  in  so-called  visits  and  then 
only  at  the  call  of  business ;  and,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  is  in  possession 
of  all  his  faculties — a  wonderfully  well-preserved  specimen  of  humanity, 
whose  good  nature  it  is  to  extend  to  all  his  earnest  wishes  for  their  con- 
tinued happiness  and  prosperity. 

Daniel  W.  Tracy,  the  present  foreman  of  The  Bulletin,  was  the  first 
compositor  engaged  when  the  establishment  of  the  paper  was  a  fact,  and  he 
had  a  hand  in  its  birth  and  has  always  had  a  live  interest  in  its  progress. 
He  was  born  in  Preston  June  13.  1839,  learning  the  printer's  trade  in  the 
Aurora  office  under  the  tutorship  of  the  late  John  W.  Stedman,  and  has  been 
a  sturdy  representative  of  the  craft  for  over  half  a  century. 

John  Trankla,  The  Bulletin's  first  pressman,  came  to  Norwich  in  1853, 
and  entered  the  employ  of  James  M.  Stewart,  who  did  a  printing  business 
in  the  Chapman  building  on  Franklin  Square,  as  a  hand-pressman  doing 
miscellaneous  work,  there  being  no  power  job-printing  presses  in  Norwich 
at  that  time.  William  N.  Andrew,  superintendent  of  The  Bulletin  job  print- 
ing department,  was  then  roller  boy.  Mr.  Stewart  sold  his  plant  to  Messrs. 
Woodworth  and  Perry  of  New  London  in  1854.  During  that  year  a  part 
of  the  plant  was  temporarily  moved  to  a  barn  back  of  St.  Mary's  Catholic 
Church,  where  miscellaneous  printing  was  secretly  done  for  several  months, 
for  the  reason,  it  is  presumed,  that  like  Guttenberg,  they  were  afraid  that 
the  powers  would  discover  the  primitive  art.  In  1858  the  Stewart  plant 
was  consolidated  with  the  printing  business  of  W.  D.  Manning,  for  the 
purpose  of  having  an  outfit  for  the  publication  of  the  Norwich  Morning 
Bulletin,  under  the  firm  title  of  Manning,  Perry  &  Co.  Mr.  Trankla  was 
hired  by  the  new  company  to  take  charge  of  one  of  the  first  power  Adams 
printing  presses,  printing  The  Bulletin  for  thirty  years,  the  files  for  that 
period  still  giving  evidence  of  his  painstaking  work.  During  his  employ- 
ment the  firm  changed  several  times,  but  "John"  was  always  found  running 
the  press  which  printed  The  Bulletin. 


422  ^^E\V  LOX^DON  COUNTY 

The  night  of  the  blizzard,  March  12,  1888,  he  had  to  procure  a  carriage 
to  take  him  to  work.  That  night  he  caught  a  severe  cold,  which  developed 
into  pneumonia.  He  never  regained  his  health,  and  he  passed  away  on  No- 
vember 20,  iJ 


The  "Norwich  Evening  Record"  was  established  as  a  Democratic  party 
organ  by  John  G.  Lj-nch,  May  22,  1888,  and  during  the  first  two  years  of  its 
existence  it  changed  ownership  three  times.  On  May  i,  1890,  it  was  pur- 
chased by  Cleworth  &  Pullen,  publishers  of  "Cooley's  Weekly,"  and  has  since 
been  conducted  as  an  independent  local  newspaper,  free  from  any  political 
party  control,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  whole  people.  On  April  i,  1893,  the 
plant  was  moved  from  151  Main  street  to  larger  quarters  in  the  Osgood 
building,  101-103  Broadway,  opposite  City  Hall,  where  it  still  remains. 

Since  Januar\-,  igo6,  shortly  before  Mr.  Cleworth  died,  the  paper  has  been 
owned  and  published  by  Frank  H.  Pullen,  under  the  name  of  Pullen  Pub- 
lishing Company.  From  time  to  time  the  paper  and  its  plant  have  been  mate- 
rially enlarged  and  improved,  and  as  a  member  of  the  Associated  Press,  "The 
Record"  has  striven  to  fill  its  own  particular  evening  field,  covering  Norwich ' 
and  the  nearby  towns  to  the  satisfaction  of  its  steadily  increasing  clientele. 
The  subscription  rate  is  two  cents  per  copy,  or  six  dollars  a  year  and  local 
advertisers  who  use  its  columns  regularly  and  freely  have  always  found  "The 
Record"  a  most  profitable  medium  for  reaching  the  evergrowing  number  of 
people  wh\  buy  in  Norwich,  the  natural  trading  centre  of  Eastern  Con- 
necticut. 

"Cooley's  Weekly,"  an  independent  newspaper,  was  established  July 
15,  1876,  by  John  G.  Cooley,  who  was  widely  known  in  this  section,  having 
published  newspapers  in  Norwich  many  years  before,  and  afterward  con- 
ducting a  successful  printers'  warehouse  and  advertising  agency  in  New 
York  City.  By  somewhat  sensational  methods  and  the  popular  price  of  "Fifty 
Cents  a  Year  and  No  Postage,"  it  soon  attained  a  large  circulation  through- 
out Eastern  Connecticut.  After  IMr.  Cooley  was  incapacitated  by  illness, 
the  paper  was  continued  for  several  years  by  his  son,  John  G.  Cooley,  Jr. 

In  1888  the  business  was  purchased  by  Allan  Cleworth  and  Frank  H. 
Pullen,  both  long  connected  with  the  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  "Courier."  Un- 
der the  firm  name  of  Cleworth  &  Pullen,  they  assumed  control  on  October 
4th  of  that  year.  Mr.  Cleworth  died  February  27,  1906,  and  the  publication 
has  since  been  continued  by  Mr.  Pullen  under  the  name  of  Pullen  Publish- 
ing Company.  Since  May  i,  i8go,  it  has  been  issued  as  the  weekly  edition 
of  the  "Norwich  Evening  Record,"  but  under  its  original  name.  It  is  still  a 
favorite  in  the  rural  districts  and  with  many  former  residents  of  Norwich 
who  have  moved  away. 


